2466 Corallines, fyc. 



amongst the soft green Fuci. This remarkable inhabitant of the pools, which may be 

 described as being like an elongated Chiton shell, is not confined to the shore, but 

 lives as well in forty fathoms of water, whence it is fished up on old bivalves, and dis- 

 covered amongst the shreds of zoophytes and mud which adhere to these objects. It 

 is extremely sensitive ; so much so that the slightest touch sets it into convulsions. 

 In numerous instances I have laid before me specimens, which, on being moved, en- 

 gaged in twistings and contortions so violent that all were broken into pieces, each 

 portion striving in its turn to increase the number of fragments. In the water it 

 swims with a rapid but somewhat irregular motion ; and when at rest lies generally 

 concealed amongst the sand, and on the under-side of flat stones. In length it sel- 

 dom exceeds an inch, when its habitat is by the shore ; but individuals from deep 

 water, which shelter themselves by constructing a house of agglutinated mud, some- 

 times measure two inches. Its legs, or, more properly, ciliae, are variegated and iri- 

 descent, like the spines and hairs of the ' sea-mouse ' (Aphrodita aculeata). It is the 

 only marine animal I have yet seen emitting light of its own accord ; and I may 

 mention that — unlike those soft contractile worms which produce blue and green 

 colours — its phosphorescence is of a bright yellow, and has a pretty appearance when 

 seen through a liquid medium. As a proof of its tenacity of life, I may state that, 

 on one occasion having accumulated several basketfuls of broken shells, sand and 

 zoophytes, which I could not conveniently examine, I discovered several specimens of 

 this animal in active life after a lapse of eight days, although they had been during 

 that time exposed in a room where a fire was burning ; and while noticing this fact, 

 it may not be irrelevant to add the result of an experiment lately tried with a very 

 common native of every stony beach, — Ligia oceanica. I took six or eight of these 

 animals and put them into a bottle, afterwards closely corked, containing strong aqua, 

 in which they struggled with undiminished vigour for three quarters of an hour : the 

 last one died an hour after having undergone this striking change of element : fresh 

 water kills them much sooner. 



While the deep-sea fishing is prosecuted in the winter months, the naturalist has 

 frequent opportunities of examining the fleshy polypes that are daily brought to the 

 shore. There is a pure white species extremely common, and bearing a resemblance, 

 when contracted, to fish-milt, lying constantly exposed before every fisherman's door. 

 In particular localities known to the fishermen it is very abundant ; indeed I have 

 been told by several of the more intelligent men, on whose statement I could rely, 

 that they have counted on one piece of stone, brought up on their lines, upwards of 

 seventy, varying much in size — some in a state of full expansion and others closed. 

 I kept two large ones, in a collection of a dozen specimens of other kinds, for six or 

 eight weeks. The variegated or striped Actinia crassicornis is also common, and 

 usually found to occupy the concavity of a large Venus valve ; but they are sometimes 

 affixed to a locomotive site, and I have been twice fortunate in procuring the uncom- 

 mon show of two upon the common modiole (M . vulgaris). In one of these instances 

 the shell itself was a fine one, being nearly eight inches long by four and a half in 

 breadth ; and the polypes, not less magnificent, outshone all others previously ob- 

 tained. They lived, however, but a short time ; and I was obliged, although reluc- 

 tantly, to throw the modiole into hot water, to facilitate the ejection of its tenant, 

 which might have been spared had its noble parasites flourished in confinement. But 

 Other specimens of this fine ' sea flower' lived under my care for sonic weeks: they 





