Nature o/' Haliph jseina Tumauowiczii. 71 



the mute stolidity of the Sphinx itself and altogether refusing 

 to yield up its secret. In one or two instances, however, 

 there was the ghost of an appearance of syncytium-like sar- 

 code embracing the base of some of the larger spicules. At 

 the same time (and this must be accepted as a somewhat 

 significant fact) not the slightest inward or outward current 

 from the terminal orifice or any other region could be detected 

 on adding a solution of carmine to the water, which may 

 be almost immediately observed when experimenting in a 

 similar manner on a living sponge. Proceeding now to a 

 more intimate acquaintance with the organism, a lucky cut 

 with a dissecting-knife had the gratifying result of dividing 

 a specimen evenly and longitudinally from one end to the 

 other ; and this, submitted to no higher a magnifying-power 

 than the one previously employed, at once solved the riddle. 

 Cord-like prolongations of moving granular sarcode were 

 seen at the severed edges extending from one to another 

 of the projecting surfaces of the quartz granules or spicular 

 fragments of which the skeletal framework was composed. 

 Here and there these cord-like prolongations were, as it were, 

 knotted into fusiform or globular dilatations ; and these, by 

 the contraction in opposite directions of the thinner portions, 

 were now and then drawn slowly across from one end to the 

 other of the same. The sarcode substance of the more in- 

 terior portion corresponded closely with that of the knotted 

 dilatations, except that in this more densely aggregated con- 

 dition it presented a darker amber-like aspect. In a little 

 while still finer thread-like extensions of this sarcode were 

 thrust out from the denser mass, some as slender, attenuate, 

 simple filaments, while others assumed a more or less branch- 

 ing form. Here and there the ramifications of these latter 

 came into contact and anastomosed with one another, while in 

 all was maintained a circulation of the granular contents iden- 

 tical in all ways with what obtains among the typical Fora- 

 minifera, such as Miliola and Rotalia. A still more rigid 

 examination with the aid of a magnifying-power of from 

 800 to as much as 2000 diameters failed to reveal the exis- 

 tence of any structures corresponding with the collar-bearing 

 flagellate zooids of ordinary sponges, or, indeed, of any sepa- 

 rate cellular elements whatever. Occasionally the globular 

 or fusiform sarcode dilatations already mentioned exhibited, 

 under this increased magnifying-power, the presence within 

 their interior of a nuclear-like body and sundry vacuoles, as 

 represented in PI. IV. fig. 11. Beyond this, all consisted of 

 a homogeneous interblending and adherent granular sar- 

 code, showing in its attenuate condition that granule-circula- 



