BY THE SEASIDE— ANIMAL LIFE 



through which the water is driven by means of little 

 whip-like structures which line the cavities. Pro- 

 fessor Grant has graphically described his impres- 

 sions at witnessing this water current for the first 

 time. '* I put a small branch of the Spongia 

 Coalita,^' he writes, " with some sea water in a 

 watch glass, under the microscope, and, on reflect- 

 ing the light of a candle up through the fluid, I soon 

 perceived that there was some internal motion in 

 the opaque particles floating through the water. 

 On moving the watch glass, so as to bring one of 

 the apertures on the side of the sponge fully into 

 view, I beheld, for the first time, the splendid 

 spectacle of this living fountain vomiting forth 

 from a circular cavity an impetuous torrent of liquid 

 matter, and hurling along, in rapid succession, 

 opaque masses, which it strewed everywhere around. 

 The beauty and novelty of such a scene in the 

 Animal Kingdom long arrested my attention; but 

 after twenty-five minutes of constant observation, 

 I was obliged to withdraw my eye from fatigue, 

 without having seen the torrent for one instant 

 change its direction, or diminish, in the slightest 

 degree, the rapidity of its course. I continued to 

 watch the same orifice, at short intervals, for five 

 hours, sometimes observing it for a quarter of an 

 hour at a time, but still the stream rolled on with 

 a constant and even velocity. About the end of 

 this time, however, I observed the current to be- 

 come perceptibly languid . . . and in one hour more 

 the current had entirely ceased." 



213 



