WHEEL-BEARERS 279 



formed without any ostensible object; we do not often see 

 it attempt to eat, or nibble at any substance. 



I think we never find the Skeleton except among the 

 sediment at the bottom of the water in which it is kept; 

 among which also we frequently see the remains of de- 

 funct specimens the skeleton of the Skeleton; this itself 

 makes a pretty object: the lorica, with its points and 

 ridges, the thoracic column, the foot with its joints and 

 spines, and the toes, being perfectly preserved, and ren- 

 dered even more clear than during life, because of the re- 

 moval of all the soft internal parts by decay, and by the 

 efforts of those little scavengers, the smaller species of 

 infusorial animalcules. These quickly find their way into 

 the interior of any dead animal with a shelly case, as a 

 Wheel- bearer, a Water-flea, or an Insect, and soon devour 

 every particle of soft flesh, cleaning out the case in the 

 most tidy manner. 



Here is a tiny subject which will test your powers of 

 observation, and possibly your patience, in satisfactorily 

 defining its structure, partly on account of its swift mo- 

 tion and irregular leaps, and partly on account of its ex- 

 treme transparency. It is a crystalline cup, somewhat like 

 the body of a wine-glass, without any foot, but bearing 

 many flat sword-shaped processes, which, proceeding from 

 the breast, commonly lie flat on each side, down the body, 

 the points projecting below. These are evidently stiff and 

 highly elastic, and their use is manifest to any one who 

 sees the creature in active motion. It swims with a rapid 

 gliding progress, head foremost, but at almost every mo- 

 ment it makes a sudden forcible jerk or leap backward or 

 to one side, and that so quickly that the eye often cannot 

 follow it in the transition. The organs by which these 



