BY THE SEASIDE— ANIMAL LIFE 



a little tuft of tentacles which is waved about in the 

 water. Each member of the colony is similar to 

 its neighbour and each one, again, is very 

 like the fresh water Hydra with which we are 

 familiar. 



Of all the common objects of the sea shore one 

 of the commonest everywhere is the sea-mat. Nine 

 people out of ten or, we might safely say that every- 

 one who had not learned its true nature, would guess 

 it to be a seaweed. As we find it washed up on 

 the beach it is almost the colour of sand, somewhat 

 rough to the touch, whilst its whole surface is pitted 

 with minute holes. The sea-mat, when dry as we 

 usually find it, is a remnant of a colony of sea 

 dwellers very similar to those we have just described. 

 From each little hole, in a living specimen, which 

 we can find without much difficulty, there appear 

 the familiar tentacles; each hole is the home of a 

 minute hydra like animal. 



Hooke, whom we mentioned in our chapter on 

 the History of the Microscope, though a careful 

 observer, was quite misled by the sea-mat; he 

 thought it was a seaweed, for he wrote : "I have 

 not, among all plants and vegetables I have yet 

 observed, seen any one comparable to this seaweed. 

 It is a plant which grows upon the rocks under 

 water and increases and spreads itself into a great 

 tuft, which is not only handsomely branched into 

 several leaves, but the whole surface is covered 

 over with a most curious knot of carved work, 

 which consists of a texture much resembling a 



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