CORNISH CORALS. 269 



They are generally attached to the cases of the Annelicle Ditrupa 

 arieUna, which live in the niucldy sand, and as very few stones or 

 broken shells are found in it, these cases are used by the Cary- 

 ophyUia to fix on, and thus as the foundation is very nwrroiv, so 

 arises the tapered shape of the Coral. Occasionally (these 

 instances are very rare) specimens are met with attached to stones 

 and broken shells, and then the base is a little Iroader, but never 

 so much so as those from Cornwall. The examples I send will 

 show them from youth to age on these small supports. If com- 

 pared with Cornish ones, it will be seen that the arrangement of 

 the plates, &c., agree ; you will also find, occasionally, tapered ones 

 in Cornwall, much like those from Shetland : they have occurred 

 to me. Yours are often adorned with that pretty Balanus, 

 Pyrgoma anglica ; although I have examined thousands of the 

 Shetland Corals, not one was so adorned. 



Where these Bitrupa tubes abound, few other living things, 

 with the exception of those I mention, are found ; they, however, 

 afford a resting place for Poly%oa, Serpulce, and a few other cal- 

 careous things, all dwarfed, and it is very interesting to note how 

 all these accommodate themselves to their narrow abode ; I send 

 a card with some of these Bitrupa so laden. By way of tail-piece, 

 I have added a list of Polyzoa found on the stone taken up off the 

 Deadman, in 1869 in the hope that it may stir up some of the young 

 who frequent the sea- side, to seize on such waifs and strays, and 

 work out the history of its denizens — stones, old crab pots, old rope 

 (a capital gatherer), and corks or any other comeatable turned up 

 from the sea, and I can assure them a rich harvest awaits them. 

 The following species were taken from the stone (evidently 

 volcanic ash) brought up by a fisherman's line, 5 miles off the 

 Deadman, in 1869, which I got from a fisherman at Gorran Haven 

 — the only one I got there at that time ; it was less than a foot square. 

 This shows what splendid collections may be made from deep -water 

 if loohed after : — 



Hippothoa catenularia, 



H. divaricata, 



Lepralia Brongniarti, 



L. auriculata, 



L. reticulata, 



L. concinna. 



