124 GLAUCUS; OR, 



without exception is beautiful, who yet cannot, after 

 handling and petting and admiring all day long 

 every uncouth and venomous beast, avoid a paroxysm 

 of horror at the sight of the common house-spider. 

 At all events, whether we were intruding or not, in 

 turning this stone, we must pay a fine for having 

 done so ; for there lies an animal as foul and 

 monstrous to the eye as "hydra, gorgon, or chimaera 

 dire," and yet so wondrously fitted to its work, that 

 we must needs endure for our own instruction to 

 handle and to look at it. Its name, if you wish for 

 it, is Nemertes ; probably N". Borlasii ;* a worm of 

 very " low " organization, though well fitted enough 

 for its own work. You see it ? That black, shiny, 

 knotted lump among the gravel, small enough to be 

 taken up in a dessert spoon. Look now, as it is 

 raised and its coils drawn out. Three feet — six — 

 nine, at least : with a capability of seemingly end- 

 less expansion ; a slimy tape of living caoutchouc, 

 some eighth of an inch in diameter, a dark chocolate- 

 black, with paler longitudinal lines. Is it alive ? It 



* Plate III. 



