146 DARK UNFATHOMED CAVES OF OCEAN 



like long bundles of hay, with here and there a bird's 

 nest attached, which on closer inspection turned out 

 to be great Hexactinellid sponges. Professor F. E. 

 Schulze, of Berlin, has described and figured the long 

 ones as Semperella C7icum{s, and the bird's nest forms 

 as Pheronema raphmius. These Hexactinellid sponges, 

 of which the Venus' flower-basket and the glass-rope 

 sponge are familiar examples, are at the present day- 

 found only in the deep sea, where, however, they are 

 abundant. They usually anchor themselves in the 

 soft bottom by long threads or spicules of opaline 

 silica, which sometimes are grouped into loose bundles 

 like tufts of fine spun-glass, but at other times are 

 twisted into stout strands or ''glass-ropes." In both 

 Semperella and Pheronema the roots or anchoring- 

 tufts are of the first kind. 



In the trawl there were sea-pens of the genera 

 Pennatula and Umbellula, hundreds of specimens of 

 the curious sea-urchin Phormosoma, that looks like a 

 Tam o' Shanter cap, numerous jelly-like Holothurians, 

 and several species of starfishes, one of which 

 {Dictyaster xenophilus, or ''befriender of guests") 

 gives a lodging to, and even provides accommodation 

 for the eggs of a sea-worm lodger. Besides these 

 there were two kinds of cuttle-fishes, and a singularly 

 large and elegant bivalve mollusk of the genus Verti- 

 cordia. All these, however, formed but a small part 

 of the haul, the bulk of which consisted of fishes and 



