BY THE SEASIDE— ANIMAL LIFE 



Young crabs are equally curious and also totally 

 unlike their parents, but these curious creatures are 

 hardly accessible to those who only pay a flying 

 visit to the sea-side. As we have remarked, an 

 aquarium is a necessity and to keep marine animals 

 inland is a feat beyond the powers of the ordinary 

 mortal. 



The Sea Lemon or Doris is a curious little 

 creature, worthy of examination. Its habit is to 

 feed upon sponges and strange diet it is, for we 

 remember that all sponges are fortified with hard 

 flinty structures, called spicules. This habit of the 

 Sea Lemon, is of use to the microscopist, for the 

 stomach of the creature is always laden with the 

 indigestible spicules and a very interesting collec- 

 tion of these beautiful structures may be gathered 

 together in this manner. The egg masses of Doris 

 may be looked for on rocks during the summer. 

 Enormous numbers of eggs are laid in a jelly-like 

 mass. Some of this jelly may be collected and 

 examined under the microscope and, should we have 

 collected pur material at a favourable moment, we 

 may watch the eggs hatch and observe the young 

 Sea Lemons in their delicate transparent shells 

 swimming round and round the chamber within 

 which they are imprisoned during the very early 

 stages of their lives. 



Very frequently in the summer, when the seas 

 are warm any agitation of the water causes a 

 beautiful phosphorescence to appear. Phosphor- 

 escence, by the way, may be described as light 



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