90 nature's teachings. 



The innumerable rays and their subdivisions, amounting to 

 some eighty thousand in number, act as the meshes of the 

 net. All the rays are flexible and under control. When the 

 creature wishes to catch any animal for prey, it throws its 

 tentacles over it, just like the meshes of a net. It then draws 

 the tips of the rays together, just as is done by the circum- 

 ference of the casting-net, and so encloses its prey effectually. 



The next specimen is the net-like apparatus of the common 

 Acorn Barnacles, with which our marine rocks are nearly 

 covered. These curious beings belong to the Crustacea, and the 

 apparatus which is figured on page 89, and popularly called the 

 " fan," is, in fact, a combination of the legs and their appendages 

 of bristles, &c. When the creature is living and covered with 

 water, the fan is thrust out of the top of the shell, expanded 

 as far as possible, swept through the water, closed, and then 

 drawn back again. With these natural casting-nets the Bar- 

 nacles feed themselves, for, being fixed to the rock, they could 

 not in any other way supply themselves with food. There are 

 many similar examples in Nature, but these will suffice. 



The Rod and Line. 



That both terrestrial and aquatic nets should have their 

 parallels in Nature is clear enough to all who have ever seen a 

 spider's web, or watched the " fan" of the barnacle. But that 

 the rod and baited line, as well as the net, should have existed 

 in Nature long before man came on earth, is not so well known. 

 Yet, as we shall presently see, not only is the bait represented 

 in Nature, but even our inventions for " playing " a powerful 

 fish are actually surpassed. 



We will begin with the Bait. 



In nearly all traps a bait of some kind is required, in order to 

 attract the prey, and when we come from land to attract the 

 dwellers in water to our hooks, it is needful that bait of some 

 kind should be used, were it only to deceive the eye, though 

 not the nostrils or palate, of the fish. 



A notable example of the deception is given in the common 

 artificial baits of the present day, which are made to imitate 

 almost any British insect which a fish might be disposed to eat. 



