segmentation resembling that of the notochord,or em 

 bryonic back bone of vertebrated animals in their early 

 stages. Yet we wait for more proof before we yield tq 

 our feelings, anji refrain from shedding our tears over 

 the possible ancestor of the human race, whose ex- 

 istence is suggested to us by this strange little creature. 



At the next table we find an eminent' anatomist from 

 Philadelphia, engaged in the study of the Ehizopoda or 

 root-footed animalcules, a group of microscopic ani- 

 mals of which the Amcuba is perhaps the best known 

 example; little filmy patches of mucus, they appear, 

 but when highly magnified many of them are of 

 exquisite beauty, with delicately aild elaborate 

 ly sculptured shells, from which they protrude 

 their " root- feet " (Pseudo— podia) in .graceful 

 movements. Some of them are not larger ' dia- 

 meter than l-2800th of an inch and the . largest are 

 barely visible to the unaided eye. The Professor has al- 

 ready identified them in most of the form 1 * known in 

 Europe, and has in preparation an elaborate monograph 

 of the group. 



At this window too, is the artist of the expedition, 

 Mr. Blake, whose quick pencil preserves the outlines of 

 the animals as they lie Under his microscope or in his 

 watch crystal. It is the intention of Prof. Verrill to 

 figure in his report to the Commissioners, every in- 

 vertebrate species on the coast which has not been well 

 figured before. 



Another table is devoted to crabs and upon it and its 

 predecessors, during the three years past, has been done 

 some of the prettiest and most valuable of the work of 

 the party. To its occupant science is indebted for an 

 account of the development of the lobster {Uomarus 

 americanus) from the egg to the adult. Just now he is 

 studying the early stages of some of the .crabs, and his 

 dishes are filled with egg loaded parents which he 

 watches with ceaseless care from morning till Di^ht. A 

 curious sight is a dish full of the new born young (7oca) 

 a whirlwind of little creatures, with enormous com 

 pouHd eyes and long nose-like rostra. 



A fifth table is at present devoted to the Acalephs or 

 "jelly-fisn?s." You are shown specimens, put up in 

 bottles of picric and osmic acid, which are very satis- 

 factory, when it is remembered that of all things, a 

 jelly-fish is the most difficult to preserve, on account of 

 the large proportion of water in its tissues. Yet they 

 seem like poor, discolored caricatures when you see 

 the contents of a wooden bucket under the table which 

 is filled with living specimens of Idyia roseola; this is 

 to my notion the loveliest creature on our coast, shaped 



