EFFECTS OF LINES ON SPONGES AND ZOOPHYTES. 47 



be remembered that for ages the hooks of the liners have 

 brought from the same banks representatives of every group of 

 invertebrate animals, and that they are not always replaced in 

 the sea alive. To the hooks of the liners, and also to their 

 ready courtesy, most of the museums in this and other 

 countries owe much. Some of the finest sponges in British 

 waters, and the beautiful Venus's flower-baskets and glass-rope 

 sponges abroad have been procured in this way. A constant 

 and large supply of hydroid zoophytes (' sea- trees ') is almost 

 daily brought on shore from the deeper water. Some of the 

 largest and finest anemones— studded, it may be, on the 

 mandible of a small rorquhal, on a piece of submerged wood, on 

 flat or other stones, on shells, or even on the thigh-bone of an 

 unfortunate sailor — are similarly procured, along with stony 

 corals and other coral-like structures (Polyzoa). If the trawler 

 is accredited with the destruction of the great sea-pen (Funi- 

 culinaY of the western waters, what is to be said of its ruddy 

 ally (Pennatula), the ' pink ' of the eastern fishermen ? Almost 

 every hook for considerable portions of lines on certain grounds 

 bringing up its example, and this not by any action on the part 

 of this pretty sea-pen, but simply by the force of the tide on 

 the line as it drags the liooks over the surface of the soft 

 ground. Several jars have been filled in a single trip with 

 these from such sources, and yet no scarcity of them exists, nor 

 is it hinted that the cod directly, or the haddock indirectly, 

 will be robbed of its food. In the same way fine masses of 

 'dead men's fingers' (Alcyonium), the slender sea-pen of the 

 Forth {yirgiilaria), a rarer and larger type new to this country, 

 and other forms, are captured by the liners. 



Before and since the days of Edward Forbes the liner has 

 been the mainstay for many rare star-fishes, and those who, like 

 the genial naturalist j ust mentioned, have eagerly waited in the 

 dim morning light — with the ready pail of fresh water, or, still 

 better, with the jar of strong spirit — for the advent of the 

 brittle Luidia on board will appreciate the services of the 



1 The late lamented Professor Milnes Marshall thought that the cod had a 

 particular fancy for these great sea-pens, biting the tips as it swam amidst the 

 phosphorescent stems, and leaving many in a truncated condition. 



