MARINE MISCELLANEA. 217 
distended with water, distinctly reveal their organic character. Otherwise, the upper 
portion of these illustrations might pass muster as depicting scenery from the stalactite 
caves or grottoes of Derbyshire. Seen at close quarters, these Ascidians are of 
gelatinous consistence and of a transparent grey hue, sprinkled throughout their lower 
inflated areas with minute bright blue spots. These spots, examined with the aid 
of the microscope, are found to represent the separate bodies of the many hundred 
zooids or individuals that are colonially associated in each of the hanging ovate masses 
or capitula. 
The exceedingly roughened character of the upper surface of the rocks in the 
views under notice is also attributable to the accumulation of organic entities. Each 
minute excrescence that contributes towards the general roughness is, in point of 
fact, the conically-pointed shell of a species of Barnacle or Acorn Shell, and they 
are, in many instances, piled one upon another in serried aggregations. Another 
animal group which, while unobserved on the Queensland coast, is very conspicuous 
in Roebuck Bay, is that tribe of the Alcyonaria, or soft flexible corals, that includes 
the genus Spoggodes, and its allies. Examples of the type most abundant in the 
vicinity of the rock scenes here illustrated were observed in their contracted condition, 
when the tide was down, to present a symmetrically spheroidal contour, with all their 
characteristic elongate, sharply-pointed, calcareous spicules projecting from the periphery 
of the sphere, like the spines of an Echinus or Sea Urchin. They are, doubtless, under 
these conditions effectively protected against the attacks of wading birds, crabs, or 
any other ordinary enemies to which they might otherwise be exposed when left high ~ 
and dry or covered by but a thin sheet of water. .The transformation of these 
spheroidal spinous masses of Spoggodes, when kept in sea-water, into erect, tree-like 
growths, in which the most delicate transparent tints of pink, lilac and pale yellow 
predominated or were variously combined, was a marvellously fascinating spectacle. 
A very striking feature of some of the reef pools at Entrance Point, in 
Roebuck Bay, was the brilliant pink and yellow hue of certain organisms that 
bestrewed the rock surfaces. These were in places so closely crowded together as 
to constitute continuous patches of several square yards in extent. On near examina- 
tion it was found that the component units of these colour ‘patches consisted 
of a species of Holothuria or Béche-de-Mer, technically named Colochirus anceps. 
This variety, which was obtained sparingly by the writer with the use of the 
dredge in Torres Straits, North Queensland, would appear to find the conditions 
on the tropical Western Australian sea-board especially favourable to its growth 
EE 
