THE ARCHIPELAGO OP CHAUSEY. 43 



where to seek the strange wonders, which are hidden 

 within the recesses of the rock and beneath the sandy 

 beds of the ocean. 



You may smile at my enthusiasm if you will, but 

 come and judge for yourself. All is prepared ! Our 

 firmly adjusted microscope is furnished with its lenses, 

 which magnify thirty diameters. Our lamp gives 

 a light almost as white as that of a jet of gas, while 

 a large lens, mounted upon a moveable foot, re- 

 ceives the rays of light and concentrates them upon 

 our field of view. We have just placed upon the 

 stage of our instrument a little trough filled with 

 sea-water, in which an Eunice is disporting itself. 

 See how indignant it is at its captivity; how its 

 numerous rings contract, elongate, twist into a spiral 

 coil, and at every movement emit flashes of light, in 

 which all the tints of the prism are blended in the 

 brightest metallic reflections. It is impossible in the 

 midst of this tumultuous agitation to distinguish any- 

 thing definitely. But it is more quiet now ; lose no 

 time, therefore, in examining it ; see how it crawls 

 along the bottom of the vessel, with its thousand 

 feet moving rapidly forward and emitting bundles of 

 darts from the broad knobs with which they are fur- 

 nished. See what beautiful plumes adorn the sides 

 of the body ; these are the branchiae, or organs of 

 respiration, which become vermilion as they are 

 swelled by the blood, whose course you may trace 

 along the whole length of the great dorsal vessel. 

 Look at that head enamelled with the brightest 

 colours ; here are the five antennae, delicate organs 

 of touch, and here in the midst of them is the mouth, 



