August 29, 1884. 



SCIENCE. 



171 



Tyrol. The migration lasted seventeen days, from 

 morning till night. The grasshoppers came down and 

 ate every thing, grape-vines excepted. The swarms 

 were so thick that the sun could not be seen, and 

 they went farther to the shores of the Mediterrane- 

 an. But the eggs and the young ones hatched from 

 them were left behind : therefore a process was begun 

 against them. The grasshoppers were condemned 

 and excommunicated by the priest of Kaltern. The 

 judgment was framed as follows : — 



" As grasshoppers are obnoxious to the country and 

 to men, be it resolved by the court that the priest 

 shall, by candles burning from the pulpit, condemn 

 them in the ] 

 Holy Ghost." 



A similar process was begun in the year 1516 

 against caterpillars in Troyes, France. 



H. A. Hagen. 



THE LOWER FORMS OF LIFE DREDGED 

 BY THE TALISMAN.* 



Actinias, generally known as sea-anemones, at- 

 tract attention both by the beauty of their forms 

 and by their bright and varied colors. They are 

 represented in the 

 deepest waters, and 

 some forms gath- 

 ered on bottoms at 

 from four thousand 

 to five thousand 

 metres possess a 

 color as beautiful 

 as that of the shore 

 species. 



Madrepores have 

 a carbonate-of-lime 

 skeleton. They are 

 present sometimes 

 in abundance to a 

 depth of twenty- 

 five hundred me- 

 tres. Madrepore 

 branchus generally 

 covers large dis- 

 tricts, and often the 

 cords of trawls 

 dragging on bot- 

 toms inhabited by 

 Lophelia were torn 

 in shreds. Solita- 

 ry madrepores are 



very numerous, and especially affect muddy bottoms; 

 and they have beautifully varied forms, some resem- 

 bling a cup, others a horn, and still others having the 

 form of flowers. 



Various forms of alcyonarians, a special group of 

 corals, were found at considerable depths. At the 

 Cape Verde Islands the same species of coral which 

 is found in the Mediterranean, and is of so great 



1 Abridged from the French of H. Filhol in La Nature. 

 For previous notices see Science, Nos. 62, 68, 71, and 78. 



Fig. 2. — Globigerina and Orbulina, much enlarged 

 (From Science et nature.) 



commercial value, was found at a depth of a hun- 

 dred metres. Between five hundred and six hundred 

 metres there was found an interesting alcyonarian. 

 Coralliopsis Perieri, which much resembled Dana*.- 

 Corallium secundum of the Fiji Islands. Isis and 

 Mopseas (see fig. 1), with slender rods formed of a 

 series of calcareous cylinders supporting flower-like 

 polyps with eight bi-pinnated tentacles, were taken 

 at twenty-five hundred metres. Other forms, with 

 gorgons, having a horny axis with metallic reflections 

 like gold, people with their graceful forms the abysses 

 of the ocean. 



The sponges form one of the most interesting parts 

 of the Talisman collection. One generally thinks of 

 these as always possessing the characteristics of our 

 commercial sponges. When one sees their wonderful 

 tissues, formed of needles interwoven with glistering 

 white rock-crystal, one is impressed, first with sur- 

 prise, and then with admiration. Sponges are dis- 

 tributed from the coast to the greatest depths explored 

 (five thousand and five metres). The littoral or shal- 

 low-water forms have a horny or calcareous skeleton, 

 while those living at great depths have a skeleton 

 formed of siliceous spicules, sometimes free, some- 

 times joined into a network. The most remarkable 

 siliceous sponges are Hoi tenia, shaped like a bird's 



nest, having at the 

 circumference, or 

 else only at the 

 base, a long cheve- 

 lure of siliceous 

 threads, enabling it 

 to anchor to the 

 bottom; Euplectel- 

 las, having the form 

 of a long trellised 

 horn; and Hyalo- 

 nema and Chondro- 

 chladia (see fig. 1), 

 which thrust into 

 the mire a strong 

 twisted fringe of 

 long spicules, re- 

 sembling spun 

 glass. Among the 

 siliceous sponges, 

 in which the spic- 

 ules form a kind of 

 network, Aphrocal- 

 listes is most re- 

 markable, a speci- 

 men of which is 

 represented in the 

 plate. In this sponge the needles form hexagonal 

 meshes. Prolongations like glove-fingers, more or 

 less distorted, detach themselves from the central 

 part; and some of them, on coming in contact with 

 solid bodies, or rocks, or corals, attach themselves 

 very closely. The upper portion of the sponge (see 

 fig. 1) is closed by an elegantly formed siliceous bas- 

 ket-work. As the colony increases, several of these 

 trellises are formed. 

 The last animals to be mentioned, the Protozoa, 



