64 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



a few flocculent particles at the bottom of the vessel. 

 The other lived more than two months longer, and 

 even bore a voyage to Bath in a closed phial of sea- 

 water, where it remained active and vigorous during 

 the space of three weeks, when it likewise died, and 

 disappeared like the former, but without the previous 

 eversion." 



The Stomobrachium octocostatum, another elegant 

 form of these lovely animals, affords, when in con- 

 finement, a spectacle which is truly admirable, and 

 has elicited a graphic notice from the pen of the 

 Rev. David Landsborough, in his delightful volume 

 on the Island of Arran. The Stomobrachium (PL I. 

 figs. 8 & 9) presents in the water the appearance of 

 a hazel-nut of a yellowish-brown colour ; when caught 

 however, and transferred to a glass filled with clear 

 sea-water, it will be found that the brown-coloured 

 melon-shaped mass by no means presents the true 

 outline of the animal, but forms merely the centre 

 of a gelatinous disc, which, though scarcely visible, 

 constitutes a most efficient instrument of locomotion. 

 Such, indeed, are the contractile powers of this trans- 

 parent disc, that its sides nearly close at every stroke 

 behind the opaque centre, like the legs of a vigorous 

 swimmer, causing it at each effort to shoot briskly 

 along as it rolls about backward, forward, or athwart. 

 Even when placed in a tumbler of the purest water 

 and examined with a magnifying glass, it is not easy 

 to make out the true form of the animal, so exqui- 

 sitely transparent is the bell-like disc of its pellucid 

 body, which rises to a considerable height above the 

 buff-coloured central portion, and is in shape as ele- 



