SEA SECEETS. 45 



wisps of nothingness ; but science detected 

 hydroids, delicate scalaria, worm cases, salpse, 

 infant scallops, and marvels of embroidered 

 embryo known only to science. The most 

 precious and promising of these in jars of sea 

 water awaited honorable investigation, while as 

 to the remainder, with a flat rock serving for 

 their table, the three strained and stirred, mag- 

 nified and marveled over the common looking 

 sand and muddy looking mud, " the maximum 

 of interest being reached," Cousin Ellen de- 

 clared, " when a boy actually forgot the de- 

 mands of his own stomach in investigating the 

 stomach of a stomapod ! " 



When the auspicious day dawned in which 

 the treasures waiting in their tanks of sea water 

 were to give up their secrets, the teacher and 

 the children sat at a long table with strainers, 

 saucers, pincers, and microscopes before them, 

 while expectation and delight were upon their 

 faces. 



After examining and explaining several 

 minute organisms and admiring delicate and 

 snow-white scalaria, so small as to tax the mi- 

 croscope and yet perfect in every convolution, 

 " This," said the man of science, extricating 

 from its muddy cradle an atom of transpar- 

 ency, " is the Swpphirina ovatolanceolataP 



