300 EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE 



make them more fatal; these surround a cluster of spears, 

 the long heads of which are furnished with a double row 

 of the same appendages, and lengthened cimeters, the 

 curved edges of which are cat into teeth like a saw. 

 Though a stranger might think I had drawn copiously on 

 my fancy for this description, I am sure, with your eye 

 upon what is on the stage of the microscope at this 

 moment, you will acknowledge that the resemblances are 

 not at all forced or unnatural. To add to the effect, 

 imagine that all these weapons are forged out of the 

 clearest glass instead of steel; that the larger bundles may 

 contain about fifty, and the smaller half as many, each; 

 that there are four bundles on every segment, and that 

 the body is composed of twenty-five such segments, and 

 you will have a tolerable idea of the garniture and arma- 

 ture of this little Worm that grubs about in the mud at 

 low-water mark. 



Should it ever be your fortune to fall in with a species 

 of Sea-mouse (Aphrodite hystrix) which inhabits our south- 

 ern coast a little way from the shore, you may be de- 

 lighted and surprised with a modification of these organs, 

 which exhibits a more than ordinarily obvious amount of 

 creative forethought and skill. I will describe them in 

 the words of the learned historians of these animals, 

 MM. Audouin and Milne -Ed wards: 



"The feet are divided into two very distinct branches, 

 the lower of which is large, conical, of a yellowish-brown 

 hue, and much shagreened on the surface. The upper 

 branch is much less salient than the lower. We observe 

 at the foot of the dorsal shields two bundles of rigid 

 bristles: the one, expanded like a fan and applied upon 

 the shields, is fixed immediately outside the insertion of 



