THE WONDERS OP THE SHORE. 125 



hangs, helpless and motionless, a mere velvet string 

 across the hand. Ask the neighbouring Annelids 

 and the fry of the rock fishes, or put it into a vase 

 at home, and see. It lies motionless, trailing itself 

 among the gravel ; you cannot tell where it begins 

 or ends ; it may be a dead strip of sea-weed, Himan- 

 thalia lorea, perhaps, or Chorda filum ; or even a 

 tarred string. So thinks the little fish who plays 

 over and over it, till he touches at last what is too 

 surely a head. In an instant a bell-shaped sucker 

 mouth has fastened to his side. In another instant, 

 from one lip, a concave double proboscis, just like 

 a tapir's (another instance of the repetition of forms), 

 has clasped him like a finger ; and now begins the 

 struggle : but in vain. He is being " played " \vith 

 such a fishing-line as the skill of a Wilson or a 

 Stoddart never could invent ; a living line, with 

 elasticity beyond that of the most delicate fly-rod, 

 which foUows every lunge, shortening and lengthen- 

 ing, slipping and twining round every piece of gravel 

 and stem of sea-weed, with a tiring drag such as no 

 Highland wrist or step could ever bring to bear on 



