226 EVENINGS AT THE MICEOSCOPE. 



thought to close the fingers together at that part, and 

 thus secure the victim. 



To make use of the prey thus secured, the Barnacle 

 is furnished with a mouth, which can be protruded 

 into a sort of wart, and is provided with a distinct lip 

 bearing minute palpi, and three pairs of jaws, of which 

 the two outer are horny and toothed, while the inner- 

 most is soft and fleshy. 



Fixed and immoveable as the Barnacles are in their 

 adult and final stage, they have passed by metamor- 

 phosis through conditions of life in which they were 

 active roving little creatures, endowed with the power 

 of swimming freely in the wide sea. In this condition 

 they present the closest resemblance to familiar forms 

 of Crustacea, as you will perceive when you examine 

 some specimens of the larvae that I am able to show 

 you. 



I have in one of my tanks an individual of the fine 

 and large Barnacle, JBalanus porcatus, which for sev- 

 eral days past, has been at intervals throwing out from 

 the orifice of its shell dense clouds of atoms, which 

 form compact columns reaching from the animal to the 

 surface of the water. One of these cloudy columns, 

 when examined with a lens, is seen to be composed 

 of thousands of dancing creatures resembling the 

 Water-fleas that we lately examined. They main- 

 tain a vivacious motion, and yet at the same time 

 keep their association and the general form of the 

 column. 



Taking out a few of the dancing atoms, and isolat- 

 ing them in this glass stage-cell, we see that they have 

 exactly the figure, appearance, and character of the 

 young of the common Cyclops, so that you Avould, 



