WE GO A-SPONGING 285 



tiles with more than seven millions of years, dur- 

 ing all of which time the tentacles of unnumbered 

 generations of Bryozoans waved in the sea. Back, 

 back farther still we add another seven million 

 years, or thereabouts, of the Age of the Amphi- 

 bians, when the coal plants grew, and the Age of 

 the Fishes. And finally, beyond all exact human 

 calculation, but estimated at some five million, 

 we reach the Age of Invertebrates in the Silurian, 

 and in the lowest of these rocks we find beautifully 

 preserved fossils of Bryozoans, to all appearances 

 as perfect in detail of structure as these which we 

 have before us to-day in this twentieth century 

 of man's brief reckoning. 



These tiny bits of jelly are transfigured as well 

 by the grandeur of their unchanged lineage as by 

 the appearance of the little animals from within. 

 "What heraldry can commemorate the begiiming 

 of their race over twenty millions of years in the 

 past ! 



The student of mythology will feel at home 

 when identifying some of the commonest objects 

 of the pond. And most are well named, too, as 

 for instance the Hydra, a small tube-shaped crea- 

 ture with a row of active tentacles at one end. 

 Death seems far from this organism, which is 

 closely related to the sea-anemones and corals, 

 for though a very brief drying will serve to kill 

 it, yet it can be sliced and cut as finely as possible 

 and each bit, true to its name, will at once proceed 



