IN FEATHERS AND FUR. 335 
WHAT IS IT? 
Do you think this fellow on the next page is a strange 
looking object to be put among "Little Folks?" Well, so it is, 
and the wise men are not yet agreed that it is an animal, and able 
to eat. But most of them have decided that it is the very lowest 
form of animal life, just a small step above the vegetable world. 
Sponges are found of all sizes, from a tiny speck up to three 
or four feet high. The original of the one in the picture, is twice 
the size that you see it there. You have seen many Sponges, and 
probably you think you know just how they would look, alive, but I 
can assure you there is a vast difference between the living and the 
dead Sponge. Many of them are of delicate, pretty colors, and all 
of them, though unable to walk about, are really quite lively crea- 
tures. 
They cannot walk about — as I said — but like the oyster, 
always live in one spot, holding on to the rock or shell where they 
first found resting place, through the whole of their life. Some- 
times they fasten themselves to shells of living animals, such as 
crabs, and thus get carried about. The animal part of the Sponge 
is a soft substance, upheld by a sort of horny network which 
answers the purpose of bones. While alive, the curious creature 
does nothing but draw the sea water into its thousands of small 
mouths, and keeping what it wants to eat, throwing the rest out in 
a tiny fountain from the larger openings which you will easily find 
if you look at a Sponge. " A Sponge in full action," Mr. Wood 
says, " is a wonderful sight." 
The Sponge will shrink away from the hand that tries to seize 
it, and it has the power of replacing any part that is torn away. 
In the spring, the Sponges throw off quantities of small round 
eggs of a yellow or white color. From these eggs are hatched tiny 
atoms of life, which float about a day or two, and then settle on to 
the first convenient place they find and proceed to grow into 
Sponges like their mother. 
