MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 11 



round the Aquarium. It is remarkable how prevalent the 

 idea still is, even amongst people with some education, 

 that sea-anemones, medusae, and sponges are not living 

 thing's, but are merely " growths " as they express it; and 

 I have more than once, when talking about some well 

 known fish which was swimming before us in the tank, 

 been interrupted with the incredulous — almost indignant 

 — exclamation, "But a fish is not an animal — is it?" 

 Some are incredulous in regard to the real life-histories 

 and habits we tell them of, or show them ; others are 

 extraordinarily credulous as to impossible stories they 

 "have heard" of our doings on dredging expeditions. 

 The boatmen of the neighbourhood apparently regale the 

 summer visitors with sensational accounts of the wonders 

 we find in the deep sea. A party of ladies and children 

 came to the Aquarium on one occasion, and after looking 

 anxiously round the tanks said, " But where are the 

 pigmy elephants ? We were told that you had dredged 

 up some sea-elephants three inches long with tusks and 

 trunk complete." "Whether this was a highly-coloured 

 version of our having found some large living specimens 

 of Dentalium, the so-called " tusk shell" or "elephants' 

 tooth shell," or was wholly imaginary, we failed to 

 discover. 



Children are usually much interested in our tanks, and 

 with a little encouragement and help become keen 

 collectors and quick observers. We have had many 

 specimens of anemones, crabs, worms, and small fish 

 brought to us from the rock-pools by boys and girls, who 

 then take an additional interest in the tank or dish they 

 have helped to stock, and bring their companions to see 

 " the ones I caught." If we are able by some little 

 experiment, or some observations, to demonstrate to them 

 from their own specimens a fact in Natural History or an 



