Tank No. 22. 
33 
small crabs, but to catch these it is obliged to leave its shelter. Some kinds 
of Sea-cucumbers are considered a great delicacy by the Chinese; what they 
call "Trepang” is nothing but the body of Holothuria edulis and other kinds 
deprived of its intestines and dried in the sun or by the fire. Thousands 
of people, chiefly Malays and Chinese, are employed in the fishery and 
subsequent distribution; entire fleets put out every year to the coral- 
islands between New-Holland and New-Guinea, where the fishing is most 
profitable; but the result of their labour is only palatable to the European 
taste when strong relishes have been added. Cucumaria, see above page 31. 
ANNELIDS (RINGED WORMS). 
(Tank No. 22.) 
The name "worm” calls up in most minds a feeling of aversion, 
since it is generally associated with such unpleasant forms as slimy earth¬ 
worms and bloodthirsty leeches, tapeworms and trichinosis. While the 
English word includes, besides these, Cleopatra’s asp ("the pretty worm 
of Nilus”) and St. George’s dragon ("the laidly worm”), the group of 
which we are treating is more definite and less terrible. Indeed, in the 
sea we find the large group to which the common Earthworm belongs, 
the Annelids, competing in delicacy of form and beauty of colouring with 
the most lovely Sea-anemones and other brilliant inhabitants of the deep. 
This will impress itself on the reader as soon as he takes a look at the 
worm-tank (No. 22) of our Aquarium, which resembles more a garden 
of miniature palms than a collection of worms. 
The feathery spiral crowns of Spirographis (Fig. 47) wave about 
at the end of their slender stalk, the brilliant red tassels of Protula 
(Fig. 48) protrude from white calcareous tubes of irregular form, while 
in another place a confused mass of such tubes is dotted over with 
hundreds of many-coloured brushes, Serpula (Fig. 49), all as delicate 
as flowers: reminding one more of the children of goddess Flora, than 
of animal forms. And yet all these organisms are true worms, which 
have built these leathery or calcareous tubes for the protection of their 
soft bodies, ringed and repulsive as the body of an Earthworm; the feathery 
palm-like crowns are only the wreaths of gill branches round their wormy 
heads. Touch one of these tiny crowns every so lightly, and instantly 
it disappears into the tube; the worm has withdrawn itself into its 
abode, where it waits until the supposed danger has passed. Then, slowly 
and carefully, a bunch of plumes, looking like a camels-hair brush, 
will be pushed out of the tube; they will unwind and spread out again 
in all their glory. Even a slight disturbance of the water will frighten 
some of these worms into their hiding-places ; and in some of the smal¬ 
lest kinds this sensitiveness goes so far, that they feel even the momentary 
darkening of the tank caused by a cloud drifting across the face of the sun. 
In the sea we may often see a natural garden of this kind; looked 
at through the clear water of a rocky coast it is an enchanting sight, 
and always yields a rich harvest to the naturalist, not only of these 
worms, but of many other animals which have taken up their abode 
amongst them. — The tube is merely a house formed by the worm, and 
3 
