BY THE SEA. lO/ 



within the cells. This natural movement of self- 

 protection is not so remarkable, perhaps, but when 

 they seem to wait for the danger to pass, and then 

 slowly and cautiously push out their delicate tenta- 

 cles, one after the other, as if they remembered 

 the warning, and were watching with the greatest 

 prudence to see how the water lies, it is, to say 

 the least, an interesting instinctive action. 



What gigantic species of hydras may be writh- 

 ing with their long arms in the unfathomed caves ! 

 The dredge of the Challenger, several years ago, 

 brought up from the bottom of the sea the largest 

 hydroid that has ever been discovered. " It meas- 

 ured seven feet, four inches in height, and was 

 provided with a crown of non-retractile tentacles 

 nine inches across from tip to tip." If some wise 

 mammal of the seas, some manatee naturalist, had 

 been especially created to roam through the deep 

 like its lord, and had written about its wonders as 

 the persevering investigators have written on the 

 wonders of the shore, we should probably have 

 read the descriptions of even greater marvels than 

 this among the Hydirozoa. 



Ah! "the sea is His and He made it," and 

 when He made it. He created millions of odd, fan- 

 tastic creatures to dwell therein, which the zoolo- 

 gist has never dreamed of, and which, if he could 

 behold them, would appear as strange to him, 

 as seem to me these few living curiosities that I 



