326 BIRTH OF THE YOUNG. 



furbelows or figiires-of-8, in a spiral form, making just 

 a coil and a half A closer inspection showed that 

 these folds were inclosed in a band of clear transparent 

 jelly. A most beautiful object it was, even when 

 cursorily looked at ; but when examined with a lens, 

 each of the beads, which at first I had supposed to be 

 the ova, was really a nidus of many : a perfect sphere 

 of clear jelly containing about sixty embryos, arrang- 

 ed in crescent form in the globule, filling more than 

 half of its volume. 



Five days after the deposition I saw that the 

 embryos were in rapid motion within their spherules j 

 I therefore detached two from the gelatinous band, 

 and placed them in a cell beneath the microscope. 

 The little nautilus-like embryos were now seen, each 

 in his tiny shell of one spire, vibrating his cilia with 

 energy, and all swimming rapidly among each other 

 within their sphere, seeking an outlet. The soft walls 

 yielded and protruded here and there, as one and 

 another pressed forcibly against them, and at length 

 burst, and the embryos came out in turn, as they 

 discovered the breach. 



Taking sixty to be the average number of embryos 

 in each spherule, I endeavoured to estimate the total 

 number in this coil of spawn. I found about 25 

 spherules in each figure-8, which gives 750 embryos; 

 then there were about 30 such convolutions in the 

 whole coil, which gives the total 45,000 embryos. 

 Yet this coil was not all the spawn perfected by this 

 animal in the season, for a large contorted roll is yet 

 visible in the ovary through the pellucid body of the 

 Antiopa; and these creatures are w^ell known to 



