BY THE SEASIDE—ANIMAL LIFE 



its real beauty can only be seen in this manner, we 

 shall observe that the flattened outgrowths act like 

 paddles, sometimes they work all together, some- 

 times independently of one another and this fact 

 explains the marvellous evolutions of the " marble 

 bleb " in water. Now it shoots forward in a straight 

 line with some rapidity, now it rolls over and over 

 and swims onward while doing so. 



In the sun, it displays glorious iridescent colour- 

 ing. At the hinder end of the " bleb " we notice 

 a pair of hollows : from these, as we watch it swim, 

 we shall see it suddenly shoot out a pair of long 

 feathery tendrils and they may be withdrawn into 

 the hollows as suddenly. We must make a point of 

 examining the " marble bleb," it is one of the gems 

 of our coasts. 



Superficially the common, sponge-like ''Dead 

 man's toes " or, to give it its more pleasant title, 

 '' Mermaid's fingers," is a very drab affair. It is 

 a dirty-brown, lobed, spongy mass with a leathery 

 skin ; when removed from the water it loses all 

 semblance of shape. In sea water, however, if we 

 examine it carefully, we shall see that it is studded 

 with beautiful little flower-like creatures, each one 

 resembling a miniature sea-anemone. Examined, in 

 water, under a low ix>wer of our microscope we can 

 see the water current flowing through the channels 

 with which it is perforated, after the manner of a 

 sponge. If, now, we take a dead specimen and cut 

 it up, placing a small portion on a slide and shred- 

 ding it with a pair of needles, we shall find, when 



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