230 AN EXTEMPORE AQUARIUM. 



THE TEREBELLA. 



A rich fund of entertainment is very accessible to 

 any one who can procure a few bits of weed-covered 

 rock from the level of low-water. They need scarce- 

 ly be selected : with a hammer knock off a few points 

 of the stones, of the size of a crown-piece; the rougher, 

 more leprous, more discoloured, in short, more dirty the 

 bptter. Put them into a globe of sea-water, an uncut 

 decanter, or a wide-mouthed bottle, or, best of all, a 

 confectioner's show-glass, and let them remain for a 

 few hours. At night examine the sides of the bottle 

 carefully with a pocket-lens, placing a candle on the 

 opposite side. The multitude of curious little crea- 

 tures that will have crawled out, and will be found 

 mounting the walls of their prison, is quite surprising. 

 Minute MoUiiisca, both bivalve and univalve, uncouth- 

 formed Crustacea, tiny Starfishes, and especially 

 Annelida, will pretty certainly reward the investigator. 

 The last-named Class occurs in remarkable abundance 

 and variety ; while if, after you have gone round the 

 glass, noticing particularly the very edge of the sur- 

 face-line, you pass your eye, assisted by the lens, 

 carefully over the surfaces of the bits of stone, you 

 will probably iind many more creatures, such as tube- 

 dwelling Annelides, the smaller Zoophytes, and several 

 species of the delicate Bryosoa. 



In a lot of sea-weeds sent up to me from the coast, 

 enclosed in refuse-weed and tightly packed in a piece 

 of canvas, I found among many such little things as 

 I have described, a small Terebella, which interested 

 me by a habit that I should not have suspected in the 



