106 



THREAD-CAPSULES. 



struggles with great violence, and requires a very 

 firm grasp of the human hand to prevent it from 

 making its escape. And yet the anemone, whose 

 entire body is not larger than the closed hand, 

 and whose substance is quite soft, can seize and 

 retain the crab, if it is unfortunate enough even 

 to thrust one of its legs within reach of the 

 tentacles. There must, therefore, be some strange 

 power by which this object is achieved; and the 

 mode by which it is accomplished I now proceed 

 to describe. 



It has been long known that many water- 

 inhabiting animals, of a class so low as to be 

 scarcely more than water animated, can throw 

 out long fishing-lines, of a substance so delicate 

 as only to be descried by the sparkle of light 

 upon them as they float about in the water, and 

 that when these delicate lines even touch a little 

 fish or crustacean, some power destroys that fish 

 as efiectually as if it had been struck by lightning. 

 But this is not the mode of attack with the ane- 

 mone, which resorts to means purely mechanical. 



If the finger is brought into contact with the 

 outspread tentacles of a healthy anemone, it will 

 adhere to them with a peculiar, almost indescrib- 

 able sensation. It is not in the least the adhesion 

 of gum, glue, or any such substance, but bears 



