278 



EVENINGS AT THE MIOEOSCOPE. 



It now possesses a peculiar beauty of another char- 

 acter. The body generally is colourless as a vase of 

 glass, but reflects the rays brightly from its polished 

 surface. An advancing egg in the ovary is opaque 

 white, as is the front part of the mastax ; the stomach 

 and intestine filled with vegetable matter are of a 

 yellow-green ; the rotating head appears of a pale 

 blue, and the eye shines out as a speck of opaque ver- 

 milion. 



With the dipping-tube I will now take up a drop 

 of water from the bottom of the Charor^&r, allowing a 

 little of the loose sediment to flow in also. This is a 

 random cast ; we know not what we may get, though 

 we are pretty sure to catch something. ISTow then for 

 the examination. Ha ! here is the curious Skeleton 

 Wheel-bearer Dinocharis pocillum ; — nay, several of 

 them. 



This genus is remarkable for possessing true joints 

 in the foot ; not merely telescopic inversions of the 

 skin, but permanent articulations with swollen con- 

 dyles, resembling those of the antennse of a beetle. 

 Hence the Skeleton has great freedom and precision 

 of motion ; using the tips of the long toes as a fixed 

 point, it throws its body hither and thither to a great 

 distance, with remarkable agility. These joints admit 

 of forward and lateral flexure, but you never see the 

 body brought backward beyond a perpendicular po- 

 sition, the swelling of the terminal portion of each artic- 

 ulation precluding further motion in that direction ; 

 just as the joints of our knees and elbows permit bend- 

 ing in one direction but not in the other. 



This is another indication that these divisions are 

 true joints; and I direct your attention to the point. 



