1 908-1909.] Glimpses of Marine Life 011^ the Forth. 115 



under water, Telia is by no means uncomely, though its 

 squat figure and homely garb of red-and-white checks com- 

 pare unfavourably with the graceful forms and splendid plumes 

 of some rarer species. Anemones have a voracious appetite, 

 and any small creature that comes within their reach is 

 speedily devoured. The mouth opens into a short gullet, 

 and this again into the body -cavity; there is no distinct 

 stomach, — perhaps it would be more correct to say the 

 creature is all stomach together : certainly for the anemone, 

 digestion is the main business of Hfe. Hence perhaps the 

 extreme age it is known to attain, exceeding in individual 

 cases the threescore and ten years allotted to man. 



Corals, closely akin to the anemones, are somewhat rare in 

 the Forth, though in former geological periods they abounded : 

 the " ram's horns," so plentiful in the limestones, are extinct 

 species of corals of Carboniferous age. 



Several rocks adjoining the Hawes pier at South Queens- 

 ferry look as though they had recently been rough-cast by a 

 plasterer : they are overspread with a thin film of mud from 

 which numerous rounded swellings project. These might easily 

 be mistaken for pebbles mixed with the mud, but on drawing 

 one's stick across them, quite a number of fine jets of water are 

 thrown up into the air. An enthusiastic observer, venturing 

 incautiously near to satisfy his curiosity, has before now been 

 known to receive a jet of salt water into his mouth. These 

 fairy fountains are due to a species of sea-squirt {Styleopsis 

 grossularia), the gooseberry ascidian. It has a copper-coloured 

 globular body with two tubular openings on the top. The 

 name ascidian signifies a wine -skin, and to nothing could 

 the bodies of these tunica tes be more fitly compared than 

 to the leather bottles of the ancients. By forcibly contract- 

 ing the walls of its sack, the ascidian expels the sea-water 

 from its interior and becomes flat. In this condition it 

 adheres to the rocks as a brown disc about the size of a 

 shilling. A larger species having a transparent body fre- 

 quents deeper water. The simplicity of their structure makes 

 it difficult to believe that these creatures actually begin life as 

 free-swimming tadpoles, and that their true affinities are with 

 the vertebrate animals ; but with these they are now usually 

 classified. 



