I06 BY THE SEA. 



float and swing out free into the transparent fluid, 

 and appear at first like delicate mosses, with small 

 stems, that give off numerous smaller branches. 

 Indeed, it is a wonder of the sea, among the many- 

 grotesque figures which the mermaids and Nep- 

 tune hand to me from the watery depths. 



Viewed with the magnifier, I find here is an 

 animal whose body is stationary, and formed much 

 like the herbs growing in the fields ; with stem 

 and branches protected by a horny transparent 

 bark, through which one can see tiny drops of 

 sea water and chyme — the only kind of blood it 

 has — flowing swiftly along the numerous chan- 

 nels. Arranged on the hair-like branches, as ber- 

 ries and pods are on the twigs and stalks of certain 

 shrubs and herbs, are little, bell-shaped cells, in 

 which are mouths, provided with a wreath of 

 minute tentacles, stretched to their full length, 

 and apparently feeling in the water for any 

 nutritive atom that may chance to come their 

 way. 



This creature is one of the many Hydras of old 

 ocean, and has even more heads and mouths than 

 the fabulous monster of the marshes of Argolis. 

 Although but a step higher than the sponges in 

 the scale of creation, it appears to be governed by 

 a certain amount of intelligence. At the shghtest 

 tap on the glass jar, the little zooids or polypite 

 berries instantaneously draw their slender feelers 



