DREDGING IN THE STRAIT OB' BELLE ISLE. 7/ 



out exception on one another — on animal protoplasm — 

 and in the beginning of creation animal life was without 

 doubt contemporaneous in appearance with vegetable 

 existence. Indeed, what is the difference in form and 

 structure between a bacterium and a moner ? The two 

 worlds of plant and animal life arise from the same base, 

 a common foundation of simplest structure, showing 



A Branching Polyzoon. Myriozoum subgraci/f. (Natural size.) 



none of the distinctive characteristics of animal or plant 

 life, and only barely earning the right to be called or- 

 ganisms, that vague term we apply for convenience to 

 any, even the simplest structures endowed with life. 



Of all the pleasures of a naturalist's existence, dredg- 

 ing has been, to our mind, the most intense. The severe 

 exertion, the swimming brain, the qualms of sea-sick- 

 ness, tired arms and a broken back, the memory of all 

 these fade away at the sight of the new world of life, or 

 at least the samples of such a world, which lie wriggling 

 and sprawling on the deck of the sailboat, or sink out of 

 sight in the mud and ooze of the dredge, to be brought 



