B 3 272 115 
 
>^ 
 
 y 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 v 
 

 
 xjr 1/4^ 
 
OCEAN LIFE; 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES M. SOMMEKYILLE, M. D., 
 
 Member of the Academy of Natural Sciences 
 
 OF 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 'THERE'S BEAUTY IN THE DEEP." 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 BARNARD & JONES, PRINTERS, 
 
 No, 510 MINOR STREET, (RIDGWAY BUILDINGS.) 
 1859. 
 
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by JAMES M. 
 SOMMEBVILLB, M. D., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United 
 States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 
 
 i\ MORAS, Lithographer, No. 609 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia. 
 

 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE SEA, which is the least explored of Nature's realms, holds 
 within it a wonderfully organized world, peculiar to itself. It 
 abounds with a living flora and fauna, which, though obscure and 
 strange, are equally beautiful and useful. An endeavor has been 
 made to exhibit in one group, representations of some of the most 
 interesting submarine forms, occurring in southern latitudes, off 
 the coasts of America ; observing their forms, colors, and habits, 
 so truthfully, that the plate shall prove of value to the lover of 
 nature, and afford delight and instruction, to the intelligent mind 
 and cultivated taste. Seventy-five species of the lower forms of 
 vegetable and animal life are shown of their natural size, and as 
 they appear in their native element. The grouping may be con- 
 sidered, rather as an intellectual truth, than as a literal view. 
 It might be termed a mental oasis of the sea. And it should be 
 remembered that the floor of the ocean is not every where adorned 
 with such forms of beauty. On the contrary, it has its seeming 
 wastes of vast extent, as well as the dry land. But even in those 
 apparent deserts, the plummet has revealed myriads of minute 
 Diatomacece. In looking down from a boat, through moderately 
 clear water, I have observed a floor so desolate, that my first im- 
 pulse was to pronounce it a cheerless blank ; but on drawing the 
 dredge, it has afforded a rich variety of objects of great interest- 
 
 M374276 
 
IV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Yet there are many places, especially in the shallower waters, 
 densely clothed with forests of sea-plants, which are inhabited 
 by numerous and varied representatives of the animal kingdom. 
 It is astonishing, how many living species may be found in a 
 small tide-pool, where circumstances have favored their necessi- 
 ties. In the Tableau, however, no attempt has been made to 
 exhibit congruous forms, or even those from waters of the same 
 temperature. The objects have been taken (as will be seen by 
 reference to the key,) from localities widely separated, and are 
 brought together with regard to their habits ; so as to set forth, 
 (with the aid of the text,) their peculiarities, and their positions, 
 and relations to each other, in their respective classes, and to 
 show the dependence of the great kingdoms upon each other. 
 The work is chiefly intended for popular use ; and the hope is 
 humbly indulged, that it may prove an aid, and an incentive to . 
 the great study of comparative zoology ; an acquaintance with 
 which seems indispensable to a comprehensive knowledge of man- 
 kind. The description of the plate is so arranged that the reader 
 will be conducted from the investigation of the lower forms of 
 life, (as they appear to us,) to those more complicated in struc- 
 ture. 
 
 The picture was executed in water colors by Mr. C. Schuessele, 
 and it is with much pleasure that I acknowledge his superior 
 qualifications as an artist. I am also happy to speak in the 
 highest terms of praise, of the abilities of Mr. F. Moras, who re- 
 produced the Tableau in a very superior style of chrorno-litho- 
 graphy. I would likewise gratefully express my obligation for 
 valuable suggestions, to Mr. James Hamilton, the distinguished 
 marine and landscape painter. In offering the work to the public, 
 I do not pretend that it has reached perfection, neither am I 
 confident that its accuracy is faultless ; yet every effort has been 
 made to render it a truthful and acceptable medium for impart- 
 ing knowledge. Any errors which may have crept in while pass- 
 ing through the hands of the different operators, (if conscious of 
 them,) I have corrected by drawings in the pamphlet. The text 
 is chiefly compiled from the writings of European authors of ce- 
 lebrity. I have been guided in making the selections, which are 
 from many sources, by my own observations upon living objects ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. V 
 
 and have endeavored to make the description as comprehensive 
 as the limits of the volume would admit; hoping that many may 
 derive pleasure and profit from the investigation of these inhabi- 
 tants of the sea, and that some may be induced to go forth and 
 reveal new facts in the economy of nature ; expounding the won- 
 derful constructions and important uses, which are hidden in the 
 humblest of the Creator's works. 
 
 While some of the objects pictured have been drawn from 
 Nature, expressly for the Tableau ; yet for others which were 
 beyond my reach, I am principally indebted to the government 
 publications of Europe and America. 
 
 JAMES M. SOMMERVILLE, M. D. 
 
 AUTHORITIES. 
 
 Nereis Boreali Americana. By William II. Harvey, M. D. 
 General Outline of the Animal Kingdom. By T. Rymer Jones, 
 F. R. S. Edinburgh Philosophical Journal. Dr. Grant. His- 
 tory of British Sponges. By George Johnson, M. D. Manual 
 of Marine Zoology. By P. II. Gosse. Report of British Asso- 
 ciation, 1834. Sir John Dalyell. British Zoophytes. By Dr. G. 
 Johnston. Prof. A. De Quatrefages. G. B. Sowerby, F.L. S. 
 U. S. Exploring Expedition, Zoophites. By Prof. James D. 
 Dana. Histoire Naturelle Des Zoophytes, Par Rene Primevere 
 Lesson. Philosophical Transactions, 1773. Actinia. Trans- 
 actions of the Microscopical Society of London. Encyclopedia 
 Londiriensis. Actinia. Ann. and Mag. of Natural History, 
 1855. Crustacea. Lectures on the Comparative Anatomy and 
 Physiology of the Invertebrate Animals. By Richard Owen, F. 
 R. S. History of British Star-fishes, &c. By Edward Forbes. 
 S. P. Woodward's Manual of the Mollusca. Siebold's Comp. 
 Anat. of Invertebrata. Voyage daus L'Amerique Meridionale, 
 &c., Par Alcide D'Orbigny. Hand-book of Zoology. By Prof. 
 J. Van Der Hoeven. Le-Regne Animal par Georges Cuvier. 
 Histoire Naturelle de L'lle De Cuba, par M. Ramon De La 
 Sagra. History of British Fishes. By William Yarrell, F.L.S., 
 and my own observations. 
 
 J. M. S. 
 
OCEAN LIFE 
 
 ALGJE. SEA-WEEDS. 
 
 1. Caulerpa Mexicana. 
 
 2. Halimeda incrassata. .^ 
 
 3. Udotea conglutinata. - ;> ^ 
 
 4. Udotea conglutinata young. 
 
 5. Acetabularia crenulata. ; j ,. 
 
 6. Chamsedoris annulata. 
 
 7. Halidrys osniundacea. 
 
 8. Padina pavonia. (Peacock's tail.) 
 
 9. Zonaria lobata. (Torn fan.) 
 
 10. Dictyota ciliata. '. . 
 
 11. Hydroclathrus cancellatus, 
 
 12. Bostrychia Montagnei. 
 
 13. Dasya Wurdemanni. 
 
 14. Champia salicornoides. 
 
 15. Delesseria involveus. ' . 
 
 16. Botryoglossuni platycarpum. 
 
 17. Eucheuma isiforme. 
 
 18. Liagoza valida. . ^-h 
 
 19. Gigartina microphylla. 
 
 20. Gigartina spinosa. 
 
 21. Chrysymenia Agardhii. 
 
 22. Chrysymenia uvaria. . 
 
 23. Prionitis lanceolata. 
 
 24. Grateloupia Gibbesii. . , 
 
 25. Centroceras clavulatum. 
 
 POEIPHORA. 
 
 26. Spongio tubulosa. (Sponge.) , . 
 
 POLYPES. 
 
 27. Sertularia pinaster. Garland of cups. 
 
 28. Gorgonia crassa. .1 
 
 29. Renilla americana. Throne of stars. 
 
 Key West, Florida. 
 Key West, " 
 Key West, " 
 Key West, " 
 Key West, " 
 Key West, " 
 California. 
 Sand Key, Florida. 
 Key West, " 
 Key West, " 
 Sand Key, " 
 Key West, " 
 Key West, " 
 Key West, " 
 Key West, " 
 Monterey California 
 Key West, Florida. 
 Sand Key, " 
 Monterey California 
 California. 
 Key West, Florida. 
 Key West, " 
 California. 
 Key West, Florida. 
 Key West, " 
 
 Florida. 
 
 Florida. 
 Florida. 
 Off Rio Janeiro. 
 
KEY TO OCEAN LIFE. Vll 
 
 30. Actinia rubus. . Valparaiso, Chili. 
 
 31. Actinia primula. Off San Lorenzo. 
 
 32. Actinia achates. . Coast of Patagonia. 
 
 33. Actinia Florida. San Lorenzo, off Callao, Peru. 
 
 34. Actinia pluvia. . San Lorenzo, Callao, " 
 
 35. Actinia rhodora. Hospital Island, Rio de Janeiro* 
 
 36. Actinia pustulata. . Praya Grande Fort, " 
 
 37. Metridium prsetextum, Harbor of Rio de Janeiro. 
 
 ACALEPHA. 
 
 38. Physalia pelagica, Portuguese man-of-war. 
 
 Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 ECHINODERMATA. . 
 
 39. Ophiocoma rosula. Sand Star, Key West. 
 
 40. Ophiocoma echinata. Brittle Star, E. Florida. 
 
 41. Asterias sentus, . Round-ray e d Star-fish, K. West. 
 
 42. Echinus. (Sea urchin.) Key West, Florida. 
 
 43. Cast off shell of Sea-urchin. Key West, " 
 
 44. Holothuria Peruviana. (Sea cucumber.) Coast of Peru. 
 
 CRUSTACEA. 
 
 45. Rhjnchocinetus typus. Prawn, Leaping. Coast of Valparaiso. 
 
 46. Palaemon Gaudichaudii. (Prawn.) Coast of Chili. 
 
 47. Pinnotheres Chilensis. (Golden crab.) Coast of Valparaiso. 
 
 48. Pilumnoides perlatus. Coast of Peru. 
 
 49. Porcellana egregia. Antilles. 
 
 50. Porcellana acanthophora. Coast of Valparaiso. 
 
 CIRRIPEDIA. 
 
 51. Balanus semiplicatus. Acorn Barnacle. Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 Meridian. 
 
 52. Tetraclita porosa. (var. Elegans.) Common Barnacle. 
 
 West Indies. 
 
 53. Pollicipes ruber. (Stalked Barnacle.) West Coast of Mexico. 
 
 CONCHIFERA. 
 
 54.. Mytillus hamatus. (Mussel.) Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 55. Pecten ornatus. (Decorated Scallop.) East Florida. 
 
 56. Pecten purpuratus. (Scallop.) Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 57. Pecten laqueatus. Guttered scallop. California. 
 
yiii KEY TO OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 GASTEROPODA. 
 
 58. Eolidia Patagonica. (Sea-mouse.) Coast of Patagonia. 
 
 59. Eolidia inca. (Sea-mouse.) Coast of Chili. 
 
 60. Doris Peruviana. (Little Doris.) Coast of Lima. 
 
 61. Doris Fontainii. (Great Doris.) Coast of Chili. 
 
 62. Aplysia livida. (Sea Hare.) Rio de Janeiro. 
 
 63. Fissurella costata. Key-hole, Limpet. Coast of Chili. 
 
 64. Fissurella Patagonica. Umbrella shell. Coast of Patagonia. 
 
 65. Trochus araucanus. (Top shell.) Coast of Valparaiso. 
 
 66. Littorina Peruviana. (Winkle.) Coast of Chili. 
 
 67. Scalaria lineata. . . Florida. 
 
 68. Natica limbata. . Coast of Patagonia. 
 
 69. Sigaretus neritoideus. . . Coast of Peru. 
 
 70. Voluta angulata. . Bay of San-Bias. 
 
 71. Murex Patagonicus. (Rock Shell.) Bay of San-Bias, 
 
 Patagonia. 
 
 72. Cancellaria tuberculosa. Coast of Peru. 
 
 PISCES. FISHES. 
 
 73. Hippocampus punctulatus. (Little Sea Horse.) 
 
 G-ulf of Mexico. 
 
 74. Fistularia tabacaria. (young) Tobacco-pipe-fish. 
 
 Coast of Brazil. 
 
 75. Clepticus creolus. Antilles. 
 
f "* 
 
OCEAN LIFE, 
 
 ALGM. 
 
 THE Sea-weeds belong to the cellular order of vegetables, and 
 to the Cryptogamic class of the Linnaean system. The term 
 Algae, is applied to a vast class of aquatic plants, many of which 
 are inhabitants of fresh water. Eut the highest forms are those 
 popularly termed Sea-weeds. 
 
 " The root among the Algae is rarely much developed. They 
 do not, in a general way, derive nourishment from the soil on 
 which they grow. We find them growing indifferently on rocks 
 of various mineralogical character, on floating timber, on' shells, 
 on iron, or other metal, on each other in fine, on any substance 
 which is long submerged, and which affords a foothold. Into 
 none of those substances do they emit roots, nor do we find that 
 they cause their decay, or appropriate to themselves the consti- 
 tuents of these substances. They are nourished by the water 
 that surrounds them, and the various substances which are dis- 
 solved in it." 
 
 " On whatever substance the Algae may feed, it is rarely ob- 
 tained through the intervention of a root. Dissolved in the water 
 that bathes the whole frond, the food is imbibed equally through 
 all the cells of the surface, and passes from cell to cell toward 
 those parts that are more actively assimilating, or growing more 
 rapidly. The root, when such an organ exists, is a mere hold- 
 fast, intended to keep the plant fixed to a base, and prevent its 
 being driven about by the action of the waves. It is ordinarily 
 a simple disc or conical expansion of the base of the stem, 
 strongly applied and firmly adhering to the substance on which 
 the Algae grows. This is the usual form among all the smaller 
 growing kinds. When, however, as in the gigantic Oar-weeds, 
 the frond attains a large size, offering a proportionate resistance 
 to the waves, the central disc is strengthened by lateral hold- 
 fasts or discs formed at the bases of side roots emitted by the 
 1 
 
2 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 lower part of the stem. The only instances of penetrating roots 
 among the Algae, with which I am acquainted, occur in certain 
 genera of Sophoneae and in the Caulerpeae, tropical and sub-tro- 
 pical forms. But neither in these cases do the roots appear to 
 differ from the nature of holdfasts, and their ramification and 
 extension through the sand is probably owing to the unstable 
 nature of such a soil. It is not in search of nourishment, but of 
 stability, that the fibres of their roots are put forth, like so many 
 tendrils." 
 
 Three principal varieties of color are generally noticed among 
 the Algae, namely : grass-green or herbaceous, olive-green, and 
 red. In the sub-division of Algae into three groups, the color 
 of the frond is employed as a convenient diagnostic character. 
 The sea, in all explored latitudes, has a vegetation of Algae. To- 
 warda the poles this is restricted to microscopic kinds, but almost 
 as soon as the coast rock ceases to be coated with ice, it begins 
 to be clothed with Fuci. Climate has an effect on the Algae as 
 upon all other organic bodies, though its influence is less percep- 
 tible in them than in the terrestrial plants, because the tempera- 
 ture of the sea is much less variable than that of the air. Still, 
 as the temperature of the ocean varies with the latitude, we find 
 in the marine vegetation a corresponding change ; certain groups 
 being confined to the colder regions of the sea, and others only 
 vegetating where the mean temperature is considerable. The 
 uses of the Algae may be considered under two points of view, 
 namely : the general office which this great class of plants, as a 
 class, discharges in the economy of nature ; and those minor use- 
 ful applications of separate species which man selects on dis- 
 covering that they can yield materials to supply his various 
 wants. The part committed to the Algae in the household of 
 nature, though humble when we regard them as the lowest organic 
 members in that great family, is not only highly important to 
 the general welfare of the organic world, but, indeed, indispens- 
 able. This we shall at once admit, when we reflect on the vast 
 preponderance of the ocean over the land on the surface of the 
 earth, and bear in mind that almost the whole submarine vegeta- 
 tion consists of Algae. 
 
 It is one of the laws of nature, that animals shall feed on 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 3 
 
 organized matter, and vegetables on unorganized. For the sup- 
 port of animal life, therefore, we require vegetables to change 
 the mineral constituents of the surrounding media into suitable 
 nutriment. In the sea this office of vegetation is almost exclu- 
 sively committed to the Algae, and we may judge of the complete- 
 ness with which they execute their mission by the fecundity of 
 the animal world which depends upon them. Not that I would 
 assert that all, or nearly all, the marine animals are directly 
 dependent on the Algae for their food ; for the reverse is noto- 
 riously the case. But in every class we find species which derive 
 the whole or a part of their nourishment from the Algae ; and 
 there are myriads of the lower in organization which do depend 
 upon them altogether. Among the higher orders of Algae feeders 
 I may mention the Turtles, whose green fat, so prized by Alder- 
 manic palate, may possibly be colored by the unctuous green 
 juices of the Caulerpae, on which they browse. But without 
 further notice of those that directly depend on the Algae, it is 
 manifest that all must ultimately, though indirectly, depend on 
 whatever agency in the first instance seizes on inorganic matter, 
 and converts it into living substance suitable to enter into the 
 composition of animal nerve and muscle. And this agency is 
 assuredly the office of the vegetable kingdom, here confined in the 
 main to Algae ; proving that they are indispensable to the con- 
 tinuance of organic life in the sea. They also keep pure the 
 water in which they vegetate, and yield a considerable portion 
 of oxygen gas to the atmosphere. 
 
 The Algae have served as food both for man and cattle ; and 
 have been much employed in agriculture and the arts. But they 
 have proved most valuable to man, in affording substances which 
 prove highly beneficial in the treatment of disease. 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 PORIPHORA. 
 
 THERE are certain forms of organization so closely allied to 
 both the animal and vegetable kingdoms, that it is difficult to 
 say precisely in which they ought to be included. Such are the 
 Sponges, which, although by common consent admitted into the 
 animal series, will be found to be excluded, by almost every 
 point of their structure, from all the definitions of an animal 
 hitherto devised. What is an animal? How are we to distin- 
 guish it as contrasted with a mineral or a vegetable ? The con- 
 cise axiom of Linnaeus upon this subject is well known : " Stones 
 grow; vegetables grow and live; animals grow, live, and feel." 
 The capability of feeling, therefore, formed, in the opinion of 
 Linnaeus, the great characteristic separating the animal from the 
 vegetable kingdom; yet, in the class before us, no indication of 
 sensation has been witnessed ; contact, however rude, excites no 
 movement or contraction which might indicate its being per- 
 ceived; no torture has ever elicited from them an intimation of 
 suffering; they have been pinched with forceps, lacerated in all 
 directions, bored with hot irons, and attacked with the most 
 energetic chemical stimuli, without shrinking or exhibiting the 
 remotest appearance of sensibility. 
 
 On the other hand, in the vegetable world we have plants 
 which apparently feel, in this sense of the word. The sensitive 
 plant, for example, which droops its leaves upon the slightest 
 touch, would have far greater claims to be considered as being 
 an animal than the Sponges, of which we are speaking. The 
 best definition of an animal, as distinguished from a vegetable, 
 which has yet been given, is, that whereas the latter, fixed in the 
 soil by roots, or immersed perpetually in the fluid from which it 
 derives its nourishment, absorbs by its whole surface the nourish- 
 ment which it requires ; the animal being, generally, in a greater 
 or less degree capable of changing its position, is provided with 
 an internal receptacle for food, or stomachial cavity, from whence, 
 after undergoing the process of digestion, the nutricious matter 
 is taken up. But, in the case of the Sponge, no such reservoir 
 is found, and in its place we find only anastamosing canals which 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 5 
 
 permeate the whole body, and convey the circumambient medium 
 to all parts of the porous mass. T. Rymer Jones. 
 
 In a work entitled " Principles of Zoology, by L. Agassiz and 
 A. A. Gould," 1856, it is stated, " The Sponges have so great a 
 resemblance to some of the polypi, that they have been classed 
 among animals, although in reality they belong to the vegetable 
 kingdom." 
 
 Dr. George Johnson says : " Sponge is a light, elastic, porous 
 substance, formed of interlaced horny fibres, producing, by their 
 numerous inosculations, a rude sort of net work, with meshes or 
 pores of unequal size, and usually of a square or rounded angu- 
 lated figure. Besides these pores, there are some circular holes 
 of a larger size (Oscula), scattered over the surface of most 
 Sponges, and which lead into sinuous canals that permeate their 
 interior in every direction. The oscula, canals and pores, com- 
 municate freely together, for the structure of the Sponge is alike 
 throughout the mass, or at most the texture of the surface is 
 merely a little more compact than the inner parts. The charac- 
 teristic property of Sponge is the facility with which it imbibes a 
 large quantity of any fluid, more especially of water, which is re- 
 tained amid the meshes until forced out again by a sufficient degree 
 of compression, when the specimen returns elastic to its former 
 bulk. From this peculiarity, combined with its pleasant soft- 
 ness, arises the value of Sponge, (the dried Sponge is only the 
 skeleton of the living animal.) When the Sponge is living and 
 recent, its canals and pores are filled with a glairy, colorless 
 fluid, like the white of an egg, which flows freely out on the re- 
 moval of the Sponge from the water. The quantity of this fluid 
 varies according to the species. In some it is copious, even to 
 nauseousness, but in the compact Halichondrise there is little of 
 it, and in the firm, inelastic, and calcareous Grantise it appears 
 to be entirely wanting." u It has an unctuous feel, emits a fishy 
 odor when burnt, leaves a thin film or membrane when evaporat- 
 ed, and appears to the naked eye transparent, colorless, and 
 homogeneous, like the colorless part of an egg ; but when a drop 
 of it is examined on a plate of glass, under the microscope, it 
 appears entirely composed of very minute, transparent, spheri- 
 cal or ovate granules, like monades, with some moisture. These 
 
6 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 monade-like bodies, nearly all of the same size and form, resemble 
 the pellucid granules or vesicles, which Trembley has represented 
 as composing the whole texture of the Hydrse, or the soft granular 
 matter we observe in the stems of living Sertularise ; and, indeed, 
 most of the fleshy parts of organized bodies appear to be com- 
 posed of similar pellucid, granular, or monade-like bodies in dif- 
 ferent states of aggregation." The composition of the skeleton 
 or fibrous portion of the Sponge is remarkably diversified. Its 
 liquid food is not received into any cavity, but permeates to all 
 points, and is equally elaborated in every part of the system, 
 which, in one sense, is an unconfined digestive cavity, where the 
 various ingredients are selected, separated, and fitted for appro- 
 priation by each species, agreeably to its nature. For example, 
 it is very common to find growing on the same rock or sea weed, 
 a siliceous, a calcareous, and a horny sponge ; they have all the 
 same exposure, and are all recipients of the same nutriment, yet 
 does each act upon this differently. One extracts from the fluid 
 silica, which it causes to assume a solid crystalline form ; another 
 selects, in the same manner, the calcareous particles which obe- 
 dient to the laws of life, assume figures novel to them in their 
 mineral state ; and, again, another rejects both the lime and 
 the flint as injurious to its constitution. Sponges appear to be 
 true Zoophytes, and it imparts additional interest to their study 
 to consider them, as they possibly are, the first matrix and cradle 
 of organic life, and exhibiting before us the lowest organizations 
 compatible with its existence. 
 
 Dr. Grant, to whom we are chiefly indebted for the physiology 
 of Sponge, was the first to establish the fact of a continued cur- 
 rent (except when interrupted by the will of the animal,) moving 
 from without into the interior of its body, and thence passing 
 through large channels to find an exit by the oscula or mouths 
 again, from the exterior surface. Dr. Grant observes : " I put 
 a small branch of Spongia coalita, with some sea water, into a 
 watch glass, so as to bring one of the apertures on the side of 
 the Sponge fully into view under the microscope, and I beheld 
 for the first time the splendid spectacle of this living fountain 
 vomiting forth, from a circular cavity, an impetuous torrent of 
 liquid matter, and hurling along, in rapid succession, opaque 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 7 
 
 masses, which it strewed every where around. The beauty and 
 novelty of such a scene in the animal kingdom long arrested my 
 attention ; but, after twenty -five minutes of constant observation, 
 I was obliged to withdraw my eye from fatigue, without having 
 seen the torrent for one instant change its direction, or diminish 
 in the slightest degree the rapidity of its course. I continued to 
 watch the same orifice, at short intervals, for five hours some- 
 times observing it for a quarter of an hour at a time but still 
 the stream rolled on with a constant and equal velocity ; the cur- 
 rent then gradually diminished, and ceased in about an hour." 
 Dr. Grant, in referring to experiments made with the crumb of 
 bread sponge, (Halichondria panicea,) a common species on the 
 British coast, remarks : " Two entire round portions of this 
 Sponge were placed together in a glass of sea water, with their 
 orifices opposite to each other at the distance of two inches ; 
 they appeared to the naked eye like two living batteries, and 
 soon covered each other with feculent matter. I placed one of 
 them in a shallow vessel, and just covered its surface and highest 
 orifice with water. On strewing some powdered chalk on the 
 surface of the water, the currents were visible at a great distance ; 
 and on placing some small pieces of cork, or dry paper, over the 
 apertures, I could perceive them moving by the force of the cur- 
 rent at the distance of ten feet from the table on which the speci- 
 men rested. Naturalists have long suspected the presence of 
 very minute cilia in the gelatinous flesh of the sponge, and were 
 inclined to attribute the currents to their agency ; but as yet, 
 they had been unable to detect them by the closest scrutiny, 
 when Dr. Dobie, and afterwards Mr. Bowerbank, discovered 
 them in motion in living Sponges. It was in the sack Sponge, 
 (Crrantia compressa,} which has the form of a little flattened bag, 
 of an angular outline, of a whitish hue, with an orifice at each 
 angle, that the experienced eyes of these gentlemen detected the 
 moving cilia. " By tearing specimens in pieces, (for the use of 
 the keenest cutting instruments so crushed the texture as to de- 
 stroy the parts,) and examining the separated edges, with high 
 powers, Mr. Bowerbank found that the sides are composed of a 
 number of hexagonal cells, defined by the peculiar arrangement 
 of the triradiate spiculae, and having their walls formed by a 
 
8 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 number of nucleated granules ; these angular cells are laid at right 
 angles to the long axis of the Sponge, extending from the outer 
 surface to the inner, and they are crossed near the middle by a 
 thin partition, perforated in the centre. In this perforation, 
 several long, whip-like cilia were seen lashing with energy, and 
 the same organs were afterwards found to be connected with the 
 granules of which the cell walls were composed. By means of the 
 waving of these cilia, then, the water is made to flow through the 
 cells from without, being discharged into the interior of the sack 
 and poured out in streams through the oscula or openings which 
 terminate the angles of the Sponge." 
 
 This experiment, we think, leaves no doubt of the animal na- 
 ture of Sponge. " If a Sponge be mechanically divided into 
 several pieces, every portion becomes a distinct animal. The 
 multiplication of Sponges, however, is effected in another man- 
 ner, which is the ordinary mode of their reproduction, and forms 
 a very interesting portion of their history. At certain seasons 
 of the year, if a living Sponge be cut to pieces, the channels in 
 its interior are found to have their walls studded with yellowish 
 gelatinous granules, developed in the paranchymatous tissue; 
 these granules are the germs or gemmules from which a future 
 race will spring ; they seem to be formed indifferently in all parts 
 of the mass, sprouting, as it were, from the albuminous crust that 
 coats the skeleton, without the appearance of any organs espe- 
 cially appropriated to their development. 
 
 As they increase in size they are found to project more and 
 more into the canals ramifying through the Sponge, and to be 
 provided with an apparatus of locomotion, of a description such 
 as we shall frequently have occasion to mention. 
 
 The gemmule assumes an ovoid form, and a large portion of 
 its surface becomes covered with innumerable vibrating hairs, or 
 cilia, as they are denominated ; these are of inconceivable mi- 
 nuteness, yet individually capable of exercising rapid movements, 
 whereby they produce currents in the surrounding fluid. As 
 soon, therefore, as a gemmule becomes sufficiently mature, it be- 
 comes detached from the nidus where it was formed, and, being 
 whirled along by the issuing streams, is expelled through the 
 fecal orifices of the parent, and escapes into the water around. 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 9 
 
 Instead, however, of falling to the bottom, as so apparently 
 helpless a particle of jelly might be expected to do, the cease- 
 less vibration of the cilia upon its surface propels it rapidly 
 along, until, being removed to a considerable distance from its 
 original, it attaches itself to a proper object, and, losing the now 
 useless locomotive cilia, it becomes fixed and motionless, and 
 develops within its substance the skeleton peculiar to its species, 
 exhibiting by degrees the form of the individual from which it 
 sprung. 
 
 It is curious to observe the remarkable exception which 
 Sponges exhibit to the usual phenomena witnessed in the repro- 
 duction of animals, the object of which is evident as the result is 
 admirable. The parent Sponge, deprived of all power of move- 
 ment, would obviously be incapable of dispersing to a distance 
 the numerous progeny which it furnishes. They must inevitably 
 have accumulated in the immediate vicinity of their place of 
 birth, without the possibility of their distribution to other locali- 
 ties. 
 
 The seeds of vegetables, sometimes winged and plumed for the 
 purpose, are blown about by the winds, or transported by various 
 agencies to distant places ; but in the present instance, the still 
 waters in which Sponges grow would not have served to trans- 
 port their progeny elsewhere ; and germs so soft and delicate 
 could hardly be removed by other creatures. Instead, therefore, 
 of being helpless at their birth, the young Sponges can, by means 
 of their cilia, row themselves about at pleasure, and enjoy for a 
 period, powers of locomotion denied to their adult state. 
 
 ZOOPHYTES OF OLD AUTHORS. 
 
 POLYPS are gelatinous, oblong, or conical animals, with a con- 
 tractile body, an intestinal cavity, and an oval aperture, which 
 is surrounded by a circlet of arms or tentacles. Besides these 
 arms, there are no special organs of sense, at least in the greater 
 
 2 " 
 
10 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 number of Polyps, though all appear to be very sensible to the 
 stimulus of light. Propagation is effected partly by eggs, partly 
 by germs or buds ; in many instances the last are not detached 
 from the parent stem, and thus there arise compound animals, 
 different individuals being connected. Our Polyps were, for the 
 most part, unknown to the ancients, and under this name entirely 
 unknown. By it they understood naked molluscs of the form of 
 the sepia, especially that genus which is now called Octopus by 
 Zoologists. From analogy, and from some resemblance of form, 
 Reaumer and Jussieu first gave the name, Polyp, to those fresh 
 water animals that had been described by Trembley, and which 
 were provided with a circlet of arms. 
 
 To this class belong many marine animals, which, at first sight, 
 rather resemble plants than animals. Formerly, these so-called 
 sea plants were, on account of the hardness of the calcareous 
 substance of which they consist, referred to the mineral kingdom, 
 and corals were compared to branching crystallizations (Arbor 
 Dianse) and stalactites. 
 
 The ancients believed that corals were soft whilst in the sea, 
 and only became hard in air. 
 
 Even among later authors, traces may be found of the same 
 opinion, founded on defective observation, or on confusion of soft 
 species with hard ones. 
 
 Up to the middle of the last century, it was the prevailing 
 view that these corals belonged to the vegetable kingdom. Mar- 
 sigli, in 1706, observed, on the shore of the Mediterranean, some 
 of these products, (Alcyonium, Corallium, Antipathes,) and found 
 in their pores little bodies that contracted when the stem was 
 removed from the water. Such bodies, or buds, he took to be 
 flowers, and so believed, that at length the view was definitely 
 established, which consigned these marine products to the vege- 
 table kingdom. But still, the animal odor which was observed, 
 opposed this view, as well as the chemical investigations of Geof- 
 froy, of Lemery, and of Marsigli himself, which demonstrated 
 ammoniacal constituents in the supposed sea-plants, just as in 
 animal substances. Peysonnel, a physician of Marseilles, in 
 1723, upon repeated examinations, found Marsigli's plants to be 
 animals. 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 11 
 
 Reaumer thought this notion very improbable, but after the 
 discovery was confirmed by Trembley and Bernard de Jussieu, 
 (a celebrated botanist,) he adopted the views of Peysonnel, and 
 Linnaeus accordingly transferred the coral and stone plants to 
 the animal kingdom. Polyps are either naked, or are provided 
 with a body more or less hard, which they surround like a bark, 
 or by which they are surrounded. 
 
 SERTULARID^E. 
 
 IN the Sertularian Hydrozoa, the fleshy substance of the ani- 
 mal is inclosed in a ramose, horny sheath, which it traverses like 
 the pith of a tree, following all of the ramifications of the branched 
 stem or polypary. The general stem of the polypary is entirely 
 filled with a fleshy substance, exactly resembling, in its nature, 
 the tissue composing the body of the polyp, whereby all the indi- 
 viduals belonging to the common stock are brought into com- 
 munication with each other. " The Hydroida excel all other 
 Zoophytical productions in delicacy, and the graceful arrange- 
 ment of their forms, some borrowing the forms of the prettiest 
 marine plants, others assuming the semblance of the ostrich 
 plume, while the variety and elegance exhibited in the figures 
 and sculpture of their miniature cups and chalices is only limited 
 by the number of their species." 
 
 In the Sertularidce, " the whole compound animal is inclosed 
 in a tube of transparent substance, somewhat flexible, though 
 firm, resembling horn, an exudation from the gelatinous integu- 
 ment, and this tube, at every bud, takes the form of an open cell 
 or cup, (varying much in shape, according to the species,) into 
 the cavity of which each individual polyp head can withdraw 
 itself on alarm, and from the orifice of which it protrudes and ex- 
 pands when seeking prey. 
 
 These little Polyps provide nourishment for the whole. On 
 examining a piece of one of these polyparies with a good glass, 
 
12 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 the tubular horny envelope is seen to be filled with granular 
 matter, and on attentively watching it, globules will be seen 
 moving in different directions, producing a sort of circulation, 
 or cyclosis, very much resembling what is observable in some 
 plants. The globules thus moving, do not appear to be con- 
 tained in vessels, but steal in slow currents, ascending along the 
 sides and returning down the middle in an opposite direction. 
 
 It is interesting to view these Polyps with a microscope : 
 " Protruding themselves beyond the mouths of their cells, they 
 inflect their bodies in all directions in quest of prey, waiting 
 until some passing body impinges upon their tentacula, which is 
 at once seized and conveyed into the stomach with a rapidity 
 and dexterity almost beyond belief. The multiplication of these 
 singular animals appears to take place in three different modes : 
 first, by cuttings, as in plants ; second, by offshoots, or the forma- 
 tion of new branches bearing Polyps ; and, third, by gemrnules 
 capable of locomotion. The first mode strikingly resembles what 
 is observed in the vegetable kingdom ; for, as every branch of 
 the plant-like body contains all the parts necessary to independ- 
 ent existence, it can hardly be a matter of surprise that any por- 
 tion, separated from the rest, will continue to grow and perform 
 all the functions of the entire animal. 
 
 " The second mode of increase, namely, by the formation of new 
 branches and Polyps, seems more like the growth of a plant than 
 the development of an animal. We will consider it under two 
 points of view : first, as regards the elongation of the stem ; 
 secondly, as relates to the formation of fresh cells containing the 
 nutritive Polyps. On examining any growing branch, it will be 
 found to be soft and open at the extremity, and through the ter- 
 minal orifice, the soft tegumentary membrane above described, as 
 forming the tube, is seen to protrude ; the skeleton is not, there- 
 fore, merely secreted by the inclosed living granular matter, but 
 it is the investing membrane, which continually shoots upwards 
 and deposits hard material in its substance, as it assumes the form, 
 and spreads into the ramifications peculiar to its species. 
 
 " Having thus lengthened the stem to a certain distance, the 
 next step is the formation of a cell and a new Polyp, which is 
 accomplished in the following manner : The newly formed branch 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 13 
 
 has at first precisely the appearance and structure of the rest of 
 the stalk of the Zoophyte, being filled with granular matter, and 
 exhibiting in its interior the circulation of globules already de- 
 scribed, moving towards the extremity along the sides of the tube, 
 and in an opposite course in the middle ; the end of the branch, 
 however, before soft and rounded, soon becomes perceptibly di- 
 lated. After a few hours, the branch is visibly longer, its extre- 
 mity more swollen, and the living pith is seen partially to have 
 separated itself from the sides of the tube, the boundaries of which 
 become more defined and undulating. The growth still proceed- 
 ing, the extremity is distinctly dilated into a cell, in which the 
 soft substance seems to be swollen out, so as to give a rude out- 
 line to the bell-shaped Polyp, but no tentaculae are yet distin- 
 guishable. A rudimentary septum is now visible, stretching across 
 the bottom of the cell, through the centre of which the granular 
 matter, now collected into a mass occupying but a portion of the 
 stem, is seen to pass. The Polyp and cell gradually grow more 
 distinct, and the tentaculse become distinguishable. As the de- 
 velopment proceeds, the tentaculae become more perfect, and the 
 Polyp at length rises from its cell to exercise the functions for 
 which it is destined. The third mode of multiplication, or that 
 by reproductive gemmules, seems to be especially adapted to the 
 diffusion of the species, and is peculiar to Zoophytes of this de- 
 scription. At certain periods of the year, besides the ordinary 
 cells which contain nutritive Polyps, others are developed from 
 different parts of the stems, which may be called female or fertile 
 Polyps, although usually simply termed the vesicles. The cells 
 of this kind are much larger than the nutritive cells, and of very 
 different forms; they are, moreover, deciduous, falling off after 
 the fulfilment of the office for which they are provided. They 
 are produced in the same manner as the rest of the stem, by an 
 extension of the tegumentary membrane, which, as it expands 
 into the form of the cell, becomes of a horny texture. It may be 
 traced, however, over the opening of the cavity, where it some- 
 times forms a movable operculum." 
 
 Now, within this tall, transparent, vase-like capsule, by a series 
 of gradual changes, the common nutrient flesh develops a very 
 peculiar embryo. " When somewhat mature, the permeating tube 
 
14 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 is seen swollen out into separate ovate sacks, ten or more in num- 
 ber, each of which contains several embryos. Those nearest the 
 mouth of the vesicle are first developed, and escape successively 
 by slowly emerging from the pitcher-like rim." This little 
 medusa-like creature, freed from its parent cell, has the power 
 of moving about rapidly in all directions through the water. 
 
 Mr. Peach, who first observed them, says : " They resemble 
 umbrellas without handles, or very wide and short hand bells." 
 He also remarks : " They assume various positions, and, when 
 in the water, remind me of thousands of parachutes thrown from 
 a balloon, descending in various states of expansion." The phe- 
 nomena of which we have spoken, strikingly illustrate the law 
 known as " the alternation of generations," and may be briefly 
 summed up as follows : " The Polype, a fixed and rooted ani- 
 mal, increases its own individual life for awhile, by putting forth 
 a succession of budding heads, but at a certain period gives birth 
 to a number of beings that bear no resemblance to itself in form 
 or habit, but are, to all intents and purposes, free, swimming 
 medusae. Each of these, after pursuing its giddy course for a 
 time, produces a number of eggs, which change into active ani- 
 mals, having the closest resemblance to infusoria. Each of these 
 latter presently becomes stationary, and affixed to some foreign 
 body, along which it creeps as a root thread, shooting up tubular 
 and celled Polypes. 
 
 " Hence, any one individual is not at all like its mother or its 
 daughter, but exactly resembles its grandmother or its grand- 
 daughter." In other words, the alternations are as follows: 
 1. The medusa produces eggs. 2. The eggs, after passing through 
 an infusorial state, become Polypes, like Corynae, Tubulariae, or 
 Campanulariae. 3. The Polype produces a kind of bud that 
 finally drops off and becomes a medusa. Thus, the egg of a Me- 
 dusa, in such cases, does not produce a Medusa except after going 
 through the intermediate state of the Polype. Or, if we com- 
 mence with the Polype, the series is : 1. The Polype produces 
 bulbs that become Medusae. 2. The Medusae produce eggs. 
 3. The eggs produce Polypes. 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 ANTHOZOA ASTEROIDA. 
 
 G-orgonida. THE generic characters of Gorgonia are thus 
 described by Johnson. "Polype, mass rooted, arborescent, con- 
 sisting of central axis, barked with a polypiferous crust ; the 
 axis, horny, continuous, and flexible, branched in co-equality 
 with the polype mass ; the crust when recent, soft and fleshy, 
 when dried, porous and friable ; the orifices of the polype cells, 
 more or less protuberant." 
 
 In the Hydroid Zoophytes, it was observed that the horny 
 skeleton formed, as it were, a case, or external support for the 
 fleshy part of the animal and its polypes, which in the asteroid 
 groups, included in the families of Pennatulidae and Gorgonidse, 
 the 'skeleton consists of a central horny or calcareous axis, 
 around which arc arranged the polype, bearing fleshy parts. 
 " These horn plants grow with the stem and branches upwards ; 
 the latter are usually situated in a plane and often coalesce. 
 Many earlier and later writers, have believed the stem to be a 
 plant, on which polypes had fixed themselves. In the Gorgonia, 
 a beautiful frame-work of horny matter, consisting of a stem, 
 and a minute net work of branches, occupies the centre of the 
 structure ; and this is clothed with a soft flesh, through which 
 the channels pass that connect the polypes together. This 
 plant is covered with a firm skin, in which a great amount of 
 earthy crystals is deposited, so as to form a crust, and in this, 
 are the hollows or cells by which the polypes are protected. In 
 the dead structures with which we are familiar, under the name 
 of sea fans (Gorgonia flabellum) the dark horny flexible stem, is 
 seen to be covered in many parts with a brittle crust, often brightly 
 colored, which can be scaled off and crumbled to powder. Be- 
 tween the two, in the living state, the fleshy coat existed ; the 
 inner part of it, being in contact with the exterior of the horny 
 stem, which was then soft, and scarcely distinct from it, while 
 the exterior part was consolidated by the earthy matter into the 
 firm integument. The animals (in Gorgonia) may be scattered 
 irregularly over the whole surface, or they may range in series 
 or bands, on opposite sides only, of the stems and branches. The 
 
16 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 cortex consists of the layer of Polypes, with a variable propor- 
 tion of calcareous matter, secreted within their texture ; it is at 
 times, like paper in thinness, and in other species, is thick and 
 spongy." In the Gorgonia verrucosa, Cavolini states that the ova, 
 which are developed in an ovarium, situated at the base of each 
 polype, doubtless in the meso-gastric folds, are discharged by 
 eight small pores, situated at the bases of the eight tentacles. 
 The ova escape as ciliated 'planulcB* (planus flat, applied to 
 flat ciliated forms of larva,) of an ovoid form, which emerge 
 from the ovarian pores with their small end foremost. In the 
 month of June, a Gorgonia, six inches in height, discharged 
 ninety such larva in the space of an hour. They first rose spi- 
 rally towards the surface of the water, then swam horizontally. 
 They have the same property as the ciliated planulse of the 
 marine -Hydrozoa, of changing their form, by the contraction of 
 their tissue, a property which the ciliated zoopores of sponges 
 and algae do not possess. When the larva of the Gorgonia 
 rested, they attached themselves to the sides of the vessel, con- 
 taining them, by their larger end. The hues of Gorgonidae are 
 gorgeous and varied. The brightest red, crimson, purple, orange, 
 and yellow are common, besides white, brown, and black, and the 
 polypes add other and more delicate tints, when their star-like 
 flowers are in full blossom. 
 
 PENNATULID^E. 
 
 SUB-ORDER Alcyonaria, unattached, either free, or with their 
 base burned. These zoophytes are either flat plates, simple 
 stems, or plume-like fronds. The polypes occur on one or both 
 sides of the stem or branches, and, in a single genus, (Umbel- 
 lularia) form a cluster at the extremity. The base of the zoo- 
 phyte is oftvn somewhat enlarged, and some species, by means 
 of it, are planted in the mud. The greater part of them secrete 
 a slender, solid axis, along the main stem or mid-rib of the frond, 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 17 
 
 which is either cartilaginous or calcareous. (The polypi have the 
 general characteristics of Alcyonia). 
 
 The Renilla Americana, resembles a thick reniform leaf, with 
 a short pedicle. In the contracted state, the upper surface is 
 sprinkled with minute white dots and larger sub-stellate spots, 
 about three-fourths of a line in diameter. The former, under 
 the microscope, consist of eight points, and are probably young 
 budding polypes ; the larger are adult polypes and are about a 
 line apart. The general surface is fitted with minute calcareous 
 spicula, seen only under a magnifier. Below, the zoophyte is 
 venously striate, and the caudal appendage is longitudinally sul- 
 cate and transversely fine rugate. 
 
 ACTINIADJE .(Sea Anemones.} 
 
 " A SEA anemone, is a radiate animal, or actiniform polype. 
 Character. Animal single, fleshy, elongate or conical, capable of 
 extending or contracting itself, fixed by its base, but with the 
 power of locomotion. Mouth, in the middle of the upper disc, 
 very dilatable, surrounded by one or more rows of tentacula. 
 Oviparous and viviparous ; marine." A sea anemone is a heliah- 
 thoid or sun-flower shaped polype. " This family of polypes, 
 from the fibrous character which the substance of their body as- 
 sumes, have been named by zoologists, ' Fleshy Polypes.' The 
 body of an Actinia, when moderately expanded, is a fleshy cylin- 
 der, attached by one extremity to a rock or some other sub-ma- 
 rine support ; whilst the opposite end is surmounted by numerous 
 tentacula, arranged in several rows around the oval aperture, 
 when these tentacula are expanded, they give the animal the 
 appearance of a flower, a resemblance which is rendered more 
 striking by the beautiful colors which they not unfrequently as- 
 sume ; and hence, in all countries, they have been looked upon 
 by the uninformed as sea-flowers, and distinguished by names 
 indicative of the fancied resemblance. Their animal nature is 
 soon, however, rendered evident, by a little attention, to their 
 habits. When expanded at the bottom of the shallow pools of 
 salt water left by the retreating tide, they are seen to manifest 
 3 
 
18 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 a degree of sensibility, and power of spontaneous movement, which 
 we should little anticipate from their general aspect. A cloud 
 veiling the sun will cause their tentacles to fold, a though ap- 
 prehensive of danger from the passing shadows ; contact, how- 
 ever slight, will make them shrink from the touch; and if rudely 
 assailed, they completely contract their bodies, so as to take the 
 appearance of a hard coriaceous mass, hardly distinguishable 
 from the substance to which they are attached. 
 
 " The Actiniae, like the Hydras, possess the power of chang- 
 ing their position. They often elongate their bodies, and re- 
 maining fixed by the base, stretch from side to side, as if 
 seeking food at a distance ; they can even change their place, by 
 gliding upon the disc which supports them, or detaching them- 
 selves entirely, and swelling themselves with water, they become 
 of nearly the same specific gravity as the element which they 
 inhabit, and the least agitation is sufficient to drive them else- 
 where : when they wish to fix themselves they expel the water 
 from their distended body, and sinking to the bottom, attach 
 themselves again by the disc at their base, which forms a power- 
 ful sucker. From this sketch of the outward form of these 
 polypes, we will be prepared to examine their internal economy, 
 and the more minute details of their structure. On examining 
 attentively the external structure of the body, it is seen to be 
 covered with a thick mucous layer, resembling a soft epidermis, 
 which extending over the tentacula and the fold around the 
 aperture of the mouth, is found to coat the surface of the 
 stomach itself; this epidermic secretion forms, in fact, a deciduous 
 tunic which the creature can throw off at intervals. On remov- 
 ing this, the walls of the body are seen to be made up of fasci- 
 culi of muscular fibre, some running perpendicularly upwards 
 towards the tentacula, and others which cross the former at right 
 angles, passing transversely around the body ; the meshes formed 
 by this interlacement are occupied by a multitude of granules, 
 apparently of a, glandular nature, which give the integument a 
 tuberculated aspect : these granules are not seen upon the suck- 
 ing disc at the base. 
 
 " The tentacula are hollow tubes, composed of fibres of the same 
 description. The stomach is a delicate folded membrane, form- 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 19 
 
 ing a simple bag within the body. It seems to be merely an ex- 
 tension of the external tegument, somewhat modified in texture. 
 It is closed inferiorly, the same orifice serving both for the intro- 
 duction of food, and the expulsion of effete, or indigestible 
 matter. On making a section of the animal, the arrangement 
 of these parts is distinctly seen the muscular integument, the 
 tentacula, formed by the same fibrous membrane and the 
 stomach, which is apparently derived from it. Between the di- 
 gestive sack, and the fibrous exterior of the body, is a consider- 
 able space, divided by a great number of perpendicular fibrous 
 partitions, into numerous compartments, which, however, freely 
 communicate with each other, and likewise with the interior of 
 the tentacula. Every tentacle is perforated, at its extremity by 
 a minute aperture, through which the sea-water is freely admit- 
 ted into these compartments, so as to bathe the interior of the 
 body ; and when, from alarm, the animal contracts itself, the 
 water, so admitted, is forcibly expelled in fine jets through the 
 holes by which it entered. There can be no doubt that the 
 surrounding fluid, thus copiously taken into the body, is the me- 
 dium by which its respiration is effected ; and every one who 
 has been in the habit of keeping Actinice in glass vessels for the 
 purpose of watching their proceedings, must have noticed, that 
 as the fluid, in which they are confined, becomes less respirable, 
 from the deficiency of air, the quantity taken into the body is 
 enormous, stretching the animal until it rather resembles an inflated 
 bladder than its original shape. It is in the compartments, which 
 are thus at the will of the creature distended with water, that 
 we find the convoluted and frilled bands which constitute the 
 ovaries, covered with cilia. The germs which are there developed 
 find their way out through a duct, which opens at one angle of 
 the mouth. The eggs found in the ovaria, are round and of a 
 yellowish color, resembling minute grains of sand. The oviger- 
 ous membrane which secretes these eggs, is, through its whole 
 extent, bathed with water, admitted into the compartments in 
 which it is lodged, a circumstance which provides for the respi- 
 ration of the ova during their development. It is a pleasing 
 sight, and one, by no means uncommon, to see five, ten, or twenty 
 young, of various sizes, but perfect in form, expelled from the 
 
20 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 duct and dispersed around, where they soon attach themselves, 
 and constitute a colony around their parent. The young while 
 in the body of the parent, are not unfrequently found in the 
 hollow tentacles which communicate freely with the interseptal 
 chambers ; and Sir John Dalyell thought this was their normal 
 position. He says ' in the course of six years, a specimen pre- 
 served by the author produced above two hundred and seventy- 
 six young ; some pale and like mere specks, with only eight ten- 
 tacula ; others florid and with twenty. They are frequently dis- 
 gorged along with the half digested food ; thirty-eight appearing 
 thus at a single litter.' The abbe Dicquemare relates several 
 curious experiments on the multiplication of these animals by 
 mechanical division. When transversely divided, the upper por- 
 tion still stretched out its tentacles in search for food, which, 
 when seized, sometimes passed through its mutilated body, but 
 was occasionaly retained and digested. In about two months, 
 tentacles grew from the cut extremity of the other portion, 
 which soon afterwards began to seize prey. By similar sections, 
 he even succeeded in making an animal with a mouth at each 
 end. 
 
 " It is in seizing and devouring their prey however, that the 
 habits of the Actinice are best exemplified. They will remain 
 for hours with their arms fully expanded and motionless, waiting 
 for some passing animal which chance may place at their disposal, 
 and when the opportunity arrives, are little inferior to the Hydrae 
 in their voracity or powers of destroying their victims. Their 
 food generally consists of crabs or shell-fish, animals apparently 
 far superior to themselves in strength and activity, but even 
 these are easily overpowered by the sluggish yet persevering 
 grasp of their assailant. No sooner are the tentacles touched 
 by a passing animal, than it is seized and held with unfailing 
 pertinacity : the arms gradually close around it ; the mouth 
 placed in the centre of the disc, expands to an extraordinary 
 size ; and the creature is soon engulphed in the digestive bag of 
 the Actiniae, where the solution of all its soft parts is rapidly 
 effected, and the hard, indigestible remnants speedily cast out 
 at the same orifice. The Actiniae, although exceedingly voracious, 
 will bear long fasting. They may be preserved alive for a whole 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 21 
 
 year, or perhaps even longer, in a vessel of sea-water, without any 
 visible food ; but when food is offered, one of them will devour a 
 crab, as large as a hen's egg or two muscles in their shells ; in a 
 day or two, the shells are voided through the mouth, perfectly 
 cleared of the soft parts which they contained. The tentacles 
 have the same prehensile power as those of the Hydrce, a power 
 which depends on the presence of projectile barbed weapons, 
 ordinarily coiled in elastic cells. These organs are coiled in in- 
 conceivable multitudes imbedded in the tissues of the tentacles, 
 of the lips, of the stomach, of the frilled ovarian bands, and 
 especially, in some species, in long threads which are protruded 
 from pores in the integuments of the body. The structure of 
 these weapons is as follows : each consists of an oval or elliptical 
 sac of transparent membrane, within which is seen a thread 
 coiled up, and in some instances, an oblong or lozenge-shaped 
 chamber. At the pleasure of the animal, or under the stimulus 
 of pressure, the thread is shot forth from one end of the cell 
 with great force, until it extends to a length of from twice to 
 fifty times that of the cell. "When fully extended, it seems that 
 the thread is but a continuation of the cell itself; that when 
 it was dormant, it was turned in ; and that in the process of ex- 
 pulsion, every part of its length has actually been turned inside 
 out, like the finger of a glove. Sometimes the thread appears 
 simple, but in those cases, in which a chamber appeared with- 
 in the cell, it is furnished with an armature of barbed 
 threads, which, after the expulsion, project from the sides of 
 the thread in all directions. The propulsion of the thread 
 is sufficiently forcible to enable it to enter the tissues of 
 other animals, and the barbed structure enables the weapon to 
 retain its hold in the flesh, which facts warrant the presumption 
 that a highly poisonous fluid is at the same time injected, capable 
 of arresting and destroying the animal life. Although the prey 
 of the Actinia usually consists of Crustacea, the smaller mollusca 
 and star fishes ; it is sometimes of much greater dimensions. 
 Dr. Johnson observes, "I had once brought me a specimen of 
 Actinia crassicornis, that might have been originally, two inches 
 in diameter, and that had somehow contrived to swallow a valve 
 of the great scallop (Peeten maximus) of the size of an ordinary 
 
22 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 saucer* The shell fixed within the stomach was so placed as to 
 divide it completely into two halves, so that the body stretched 
 tensely over, had become thin and flattened like a pancake. All 
 commnnication between the inferior portion of the stomach and 
 the mouth was of course prevented, yet instead of emaciating 
 and dying of an atrophy, the animal had availed itself of what 
 had undoubtedly been a very untoward accident, to increase its 
 enjoyments and its chance of double fare.' A new mouth fur- 
 nished with two rows of numerous tentacula was opened up on 
 what had been the base and led to the under stomach. The in- 
 dividual had indeed become a sort of Siamese twins, but with 
 greater intimacy and extent in its unions." 
 
 Metridium Prsetextum, (J. P. Couthony,) exhibited wholly in 
 the plate, is generally found with its body covered with sand, 
 having its disc expanded on a level with the surface. When mo- 
 lested they entirely conceal themselves beneath the sand. Spe- 
 cimens were obtained off Santa Cruz : also on the north side of 
 the harbor, near Praya Grande. Another allied species was 
 observed by Dr. C. Pickering in the sand among the rocks out- 
 side of the harbor. 
 
 ACALEPHJE. 
 
 "TN the third division of Acalephse, denominated by Cuvier, 
 * Acalephes Hydrostatiques,' the body is supported in the water 
 by a very peculiar organ, or set of organs, provided for the pur- 
 pose. This consists of one or more bladders, capable of being 
 filled with air at the will of the*animal, which are appended to 
 the body in various positions, so as to form floats of sufficient 
 buoyancy to sustain the creature upon the surface of the sea, 
 when in a state of distension ; but, when partially empty, allow- 
 ing it to sink, and thus escape the approach of danger." " The 
 most conspicuous, if not the most typical, member of the Physo- 
 grade order of Acalephae is the Physalia, (known to sailors by 
 the name of the Portuguese man-of-war,) in w r hich all that part 
 answering to the disc in the ' Pulmograde' order, is expanded 
 into a bag, the major part of which is occupied by an air-bladder, 
 whilst the digestive cavity is subdivided amongst a series of ap- 
 pendages attached to one part of the under surface of the bag. 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 23 
 
 This part consists of an outer thin and dense membrane, of an 
 inner thicker membrane beset with long cilia, and of an air- 
 bladder, which at one point is attached to the above membranes, 
 where there is a small constricted aperture, at least in the outer 
 membrane. This membrane is developed into a kind of crest 
 along its upper part." "The air-bladder is endowed with a con- 
 siderable power of contraction, and when carefully examined, 
 two orifices are observable, one at each extremity, through which, 
 upon pressure, the contained air readily escapes, a provision for 
 enabling the creature to regulate its specific gravity at pleasure, 
 and, when alarmed, at once to lessen its buoyancy by diminish- 
 ing the capacity of its swimming-bladder, and to sink into the 
 waves." " The opinion that these animals are able to expel the 
 air from the air-bladder at will, was rendered doubtful, as a 
 general rule, by Olfers, who could find no opening in the large 
 bladder of Physalia. [Subsequent observations, however, have 
 determined that Physalia is the only one of the Physsophoridse 
 whose bladder does really communicate with the external air. 
 But, though there be no such communication in the rest, Leuckart 
 states that in many of them (and he believes it to be true of all,) 
 the air may be readily caused to pass from the cavity of the 
 bladder into that of the common stem, by the expansion of the 
 upper extremity of which the air-bladder is in all cases sur- 
 rounded." "Quatrefages has described the action of the sphincter 
 muscle, and the connexion of both bladders with the aperture ; 
 he also caused the air contained in the interior bladder to be 
 analyzed, and found that it contained less of oxygen than atmo- 
 spheric air, by about three per cent. ; the animal appeared to be 
 able to expel the air voluntarily at intervals, and to distend the 
 bladder again after a short time ; it would therefore seem to be 
 a respiratory organ for the colony. The air-bladder is surround- 
 ed on all sides by the external bladder or envelope, which is, in 
 fact, the expanded stem of the colony ; with the under surface 
 of this the various appendages are connected, and into its cavity 
 the cavities of them all open more or less directly. The bladder 
 in Physalia did not appear to Quatrefages to be merely a passive 
 organ, for besides the power of emptying and distending it, the 
 animal seemed to be able to direct the fluid contained in the 
 
24 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 cavity of the appendages into this or that bundle of them at will, 
 and so to alter the position of the centre of gravity of the blad- 
 der, and by thus bringing different regions of it to the surface, to 
 steer its course.] The appendages are of three kinds: Urticating, 
 digestive, and (probably) generative. The urticating tentacles 
 are the longest ; they are hollow, and are provided with muscular 
 fibres, of which the most conspicuous are longitudinal, and serve 
 to retract them. They contain many corpuscles of a reniform 
 shape, and are richly provided with thread-cells, whose filaments 
 are of the spiral kind. The gastric appendages are shorter and 
 wider, and are provided with stomata, which are applied to the 
 prey seized and benumbed by the tentacles. If the prey be small, 
 it is sucked bodily into the gastric sac ; if large, the sac becomes 
 distended with its juices and dissolved parts, the gastric secretion 
 being a very rapid and powerful solvent. The mouth of each sac 
 is wide, with a broad everted lip, armed with a series of i nettle- 
 cells.' The whole gastric appendage is highly contractile, and 
 in constant motion in the living animal. The appendages of the 
 third class are cyathiform." 
 
 ECHINODERMA T A. (Asteroidea.) 
 
 "THE casual observer who should, for the first time, examine a 
 star-fish, or a sea-urchin, two of the most familiar examples of 
 the Echinodermata met with upon our shores, would indeed find 
 it a difficult task to associate them with any other class, or to 
 imagine the affinities whereby they are related, either to the 
 simpler animals we have already described, or to more perfect 
 forms of existence hereafter to be mentioned. They would seem 
 to stand alone in the creation, without appearing to form any 
 portion of that series of development which we have hitherto been 
 able to trace. But this apparent want of conformity to the 
 general laws of development vanishes on more attentive examina- 
 tion ; so that we may not only trace the steps by which every 
 family of this extensive class merges insensibly into another, but 
 perceive that, at the two opposite points of the circle, the Echi- 
 dermata are intimately in relation with the Polyps on one hand, 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 25 
 
 while on the other they as obviously approximate the annulose 
 animals, to which the most perfectly organized amongst them 
 bear a striking resemblance. In Ophiurus, the rays are long 
 and simple, resembling the tails of so many serpents a circum- 
 stance from whence the name of the family is derived. Never- 
 theless, on each side of every ray we still trace movable lat- 
 eral spines, which, although but mere rudiments of what may 
 be seen in Comatula, may still assist in locomotion, or perhaps 
 may contribute to retain the prey more firmly when seized by 
 the arms. The rays themselves are composed of many pieces 
 curiously imbricated and joined together by ligaments, so that 
 they are, from their length and tenuity, extremely flexible in all 
 directions, and serve not only for legs adapted to crawl upon the 
 ground, but are occasionally serviceable as fins, able to support 
 the animal in the water for a short distance by a kind of undu- 
 latory movement. The body, or central disc, is beautifully con- 
 structed, being made up of innumerable pieces accurately fitted 
 together. The mouth occupies the centre of the ventral surface, 
 and is surrounded by radiating furrows, in which are seen minute 
 apertures that give passage to a set of remarkable prehensile 
 organs; these are calculated to act as suckers, and so disposed 
 as either to fix the body of the animal, or to retain food during 
 the process of deglutition. In Ophiurus we have just mentioned 
 the existence of protrusible suckers around the opening of the 
 mouth, well adapted, from their position, to take firm hold of 
 food seized by the animal ; and it is by increasing the number of 
 such organs that ample compensation is made for the loss of mo- 
 tion in the rays themselves in the star-fishes. On examining the 
 lower surface of an Asterias, even in those forms which most ap- 
 proximate a right-lined pentagon in their marginal contour, the 
 number of rays will still be found to be distinctly indicated by as 
 many furrows radiating from the mouth, and indicating the centre 
 of each division of the body. These ambulacral furrows, as they 
 are termed, exhibit, when examined in a dried specimen, innu- 
 merable orifices arranged in parallel rows, through each of which, 
 when alive, the animal could protrude a prehensile sucker, capa- 
 ble of being securely attached to any smooth surface. No verbal 
 description can at all do justice to this wonderful mechanism, 
 4 
 
26 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 even leaving out of the question the means by which each indi- 
 vidual sucker is wielded ; but let any of our readers, when oppor- 
 tunity offers, pick up from the beach any of these animals, the 
 common star-fish of our coast, which, as it lies upon the sand left 
 by the retiring waves, appears so incapable of movement, so 
 utterly helpless and inanimate ; let him place it in a large glass 
 jar filled with its native element, and watch the admirable spec- 
 tacle which it then presents : Slowly he perceives its rays expand 
 to their full stretch * hundreds of feet are gradually protruded 
 through the ambulacral apertures, and each, apparently possessed 
 of independent action, fixes itself to the sides of the vessel as the 
 animal begins its march. The numerous suckers are soon all 
 employed, fixing and detaching themselves alternately, some 
 remaining firmly adherent, while others change their position ; 
 and thus, by an equable gliding movement, the star-fish climbs 
 the sides of the glass in which it is confined, or the perpendicular 
 surface of the submarine rock. But it is not only as agents in 
 locomotion that the ambulacral suckers are used ; helpless as 
 these creatures appear to be, they are among the most formidable 
 tyrants of the deep, as will be readily admitted by any one who 
 watches them in the act of devouring prey. When seizing its 
 food, the rays of the Asterias are bent towards the ventral aspect, 
 so as to form a kind of cup, in the centre of which is the opening 
 of the mouth; the cup thus formed will, to a certain extent, lay 
 hold of a passing victim ; but, without other means of securing 
 it, the grasp would scarcely be very formidable to animals pos- 
 sessed of any strength ; armed, however, as the rays have been 
 found to be, with hundreds of tenaceous suckers, escape is almost 
 impossible, for prey once seized is secured by every part of its 
 surface, and, in spite of its utmost efforts, is speedily dragged 
 into the mouth, and engulphed in the capacious stomach, where 
 its soft parts are soon dissolved. 
 
 " On examining a living Asterias, the outer covering of its body 
 is found to be composed of a dense coriaceous substance, in which 
 numerous calcareous pieces are apparently imbedded. The cori- 
 aceous integument is generally colored externally with lively 
 tints, and is evidently possessed of considerable irritability, as it 
 readily shrinks under the knife, or upon the application of various 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 27 
 
 stimuli. When cut into, it has a semi-cartilaginous hardness, 
 and fibrous bands, almost resembling tendon in their aspect, may 
 be seen to radiate from the centre of the body towards the ex- 
 tremities of the rays. There is no doubt that the movements of 
 the rays are effected by the contractions of this fibrous membrane. 
 The skeleton, or calcareous framework imbedded in the skin of 
 the Asteridse, is by no means the least remarkable part of their 
 structure. This consists of several hundred pieces, variously dis- 
 posed, and for the most part fitted together'with great accuracy; 
 being either firmly soldered to each other, as we have seen them 
 to be in the formation of the calcareous box that constitutes the 
 central portion of Ophiurus, or united by ligaments, so as to 
 allow of a considerable degree of motion to take place between 
 them, as in the rays of Ophiurus, and other asteroid forms." 
 " The star-fishes, grossly considered, might be regarded as mere 
 walking stomachs ; and the office assigned to them in the economy 
 of nature, that of devouring all sorts of garbage and offal which 
 would otherwise accumulate upon our shores. But their diet is 
 by no means exclusively limited to such materials, since crusta- 
 ceans, shell-fish of various kinds, and even small fishes, easily 
 fall victims to their voracity. Neither is the size of the prey 
 upon which they feed so diminutive as we might suppose, from a 
 mere inspection of the orifice representing the mouth ; for this is 
 not only extremely dilatable, but, as we have found to be the 
 case in the Actinioe, the stomach is occasionally partially in- 
 verted, in order more completely to embrace substances about to 
 be devoured. Shell-fishes are frequently swallowed whole, and 
 a living specimen of Chama antiquata, Lin., has been taken from 
 the digestive cavity of an Asterias, in an entire state. It appears, 
 moreover, that it is not necessary for testaceous Mollusca to be 
 absolutely swallowed, shell and all, to enable the Asteridse to ob- 
 tain possession of the inclosed animal, as they would seem to 
 have the power of attacking large oysters, to which they are 
 generally believed to be peculiarly destructive, and of eating 
 them out of their shells. The ancients believed that, in order to 
 accomplish this, the star-fish, on finding an oyster partially open, 
 "cunningly inserted one of its rays between the valves, and thus, 
 gradually insinuating itself, destroyed its victim. Modern ob- 
 
28 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 servations do not, as far as we are aware, fully bear out the 
 above opinion of our ancestors as to the mode in which star- 
 fishes attack oysters, although the destruction which they cause 
 is pretty generally acknowledged. 
 
 " The observations recorded by M. Eudes Deslongchamps upon 
 this subject are, however, exceedingly curious. As the waves 
 had receded from the shore, so as to leave only one or two 
 inches of water upon the sand, he saw numbers of Asterias 
 rubens rolling in bunches, five or six being fastened together 
 into a sort of ball by the interlacement of their rays. He ex- 
 amined a great number of such balls, and constantly found in 
 the centre a Bivalve Molluse, (Mactra Stultorum, Lin.) of an inch 
 and a half in length. The valves were invariably opened to the 
 extent of two or three lines, and the star-fishes were always 
 ranged with their mouths in contact with the edges of the valves. 
 On detaching them from the shell which they thus imprisoned, 
 he found that they had introduced between the valves large 
 rounded vesicles with very thin walls, and filled with a transpa- 
 rent fluid. Each Asterias had five of these vesicles ranged around 
 its mouth, but they were of very unequal size ; generally there 
 were two larger than the rest, equal in size to large filberts, 
 while the other three were not bigger than small peas. These 
 vesicles appeared to be attached to the Asterias by short pedicles, 
 and at the end of each was a round open aperture, through which 
 the fluid contained in the vesicle flowed out drop by drop. No 
 sooner was the animal detached from the shell that it was thus 
 sucking, than the vessels collapsed, and became no longer distin- 
 guishable. The Mactra were all found to be more or less de- 
 voured, some having only their adductor muscles left^ but, how- 
 ever little they had been injured, all had lost the power of closing 
 their valves and were apparently dead ; nevertheless there was 
 nothing to lead to the supposition that only dead shell fishes were 
 attacked, so that it is difficult to imagine how the delicate vesi- 
 cles above described escaped injury from the closing of the valves. 
 M. Deslongchamps thinks that probably the Asterias pours into 
 the shell a torpifying secretion, and thus ensures the death of 
 its victim." " The Asterias possesses no organs specially ap- 
 propriated to respiration ; but the sea water being freely admit- 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 29 
 
 r~ - 
 
 ted into the general cavity of the body through a set of minute 
 membranous tubes seen upon the exterior of the animal, bathes 
 all the viscera, and consequently ensures a complete exposure of 
 the circulating fluids to the influence of oxygen, the whole 
 peritoneal surface performing the office of a respiratory apparatus. 
 " The nervous apparatus of the Asteridse, consists of a simple 
 circular cord, which runs around the mouth of the animal; from 
 this ring, three delicate filaments are given off opposite to each 
 ray, one of which according to Tiedemann, runs along the centre 
 of the ambulaceal grove upon the under surface of the body, 
 and gives minute twigs to the locomotive suckers placed on each 
 side of its course ; the other two filaments, pass into the visceral 
 cavity, and are probably distributed to the internal organs. 
 There are no ganglia developed on any part of this nervous ap- 
 paratus ; or at least, if, as some writers assert, ganglionic en- 
 largements are visible at the points whence the radiating nerves 
 are given off, they are so extremely minute as not in any degree 
 to merit the appellation of nervous centres." " The general 
 sense of touch in the Asteridse is extremely delicate, serving not 
 only to enable them to seize and secure prey, but even to recog- 
 nise its presence at some little distance, and thus direct these 
 animals to their food. Any person who has been in the habit of 
 fishing with a line in the shallow bays frequented by star-fishes, 
 and observed how frequently a bait is taken and devoured by 
 them, will be disposed to admit this ; yet to what are we to at- 
 tribute this power of perceiving external objects ? It would 
 seem most probably due to some modification of the general 
 sensibility of the body, allowing of the perception of impressions 
 in some degree allied to the sense of smell in higher animals, 
 and related in the character to the kind of sensation by which 
 we have already seen the Actiniae and other polyps able to ap- 
 preciate the presence of light, although absolutely deprived of 
 visual organs." 
 
80 OCEAN LIFE* 
 
 ECHINOIDEA. 
 
 "THE Echini, however they may appear to differ in outward 
 form from the Asteridae, will be found to present so many points 
 of resemblance in their general structure, that the account we 
 have given above, of the organization of the last mentioned 
 family, will throw considerable light upon the still more elabo- 
 rately constructed animals which now present themselves to our 
 notice." 
 
 " The Echini may be found in abundance upon our coasts, in- 
 habiting the sea, not far from the shore, or lurking among rocks, 
 where they obtain the means of sustenance. Their shape is more 
 or less completely globular, and their whole surface covered with 
 strong spines, on which they roll themselves from place to place, 
 moving them all as though they were stiff legs ; but if they wish 
 to hide themselves from observation, or perceive they are in 
 danger of being left upon the shore by the retreating tide, these 
 numerous spines perform the part of rakes, and scraping up the 
 sand, soon makes a kind of grave into which the creature sinks, 
 till it is covered over, securing for itself, by this proceeding, 
 safety from external violence and also water to respire until the 
 tide comes back. 
 
 " Such power of walking in an animal that is enclosed on all 
 sides in a shelly box, seems in itself sufficiently surprising, but 
 when we learn that it can climb the cliff in search of food, and 
 even make its way, while pendant from the roof of rocky caverns, 
 we scarcely can conceive the possibility of its performing feats 
 so difficult, and eagerly inquire what means have been provided 
 for the purpose* 
 
 " Whoever takes the trouble to observe the Echinus while alive, 
 confined in fresh sea water, or at large upon its native rock, will 
 not be long in doubt upon this point. Protruding from the shell, 
 and reaching past the points of even the longest spines, appear 
 innumerable suckers evidently similar in their construction, and 
 in function too, to those of the Asteridce. These are applied in 
 turn to the smooth inner surface of the glass, or to the stone on 
 which the creature climbs, and by the aid of this elaborate 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 81 
 
 mechanism the Echinus glides along to browse the corralines, 
 and other Zoophytes, which clothe the rocky reef or sea-girt 
 precipice. The creature's mouth is carried next the ground ; it 
 is a circular orifice, surrounded with a fleshy ring, through which 
 protrude five sharp crystalline teeth, whose points all meeting in 
 the centre serve to nibble off the substances employed as nutri- 
 ment, and thus, without apparent instruments of sense, such as 
 belong to higher animals, and unpossessed of limbs except its 
 spines and suckers, the sea urchin marches on with ease, in 
 situations where, apparently, no footing could be found, and lives 
 a life of indolent security, encased in solid armor and beset with 
 spines, compared with which, the bristles of the hedge-hog are a 
 poor protection. Such being the general habits of the Echinidce, 
 our next inquiries must relate to their construction, and perhaps 
 we are already prepared to expect that this must offer many 
 features worthy of remark. 
 
 " The shell, or dense calcareous crust, that seems to enclose the 
 animal, is really placed internally, for although it contains the 
 viscera appointed for nutrition, all the living flesh, the real sub- 
 stance of the creature is external to it. Let this fact be well remem- 
 bered if we would appreciate the analogies which still ally those 
 globe-like beings to the star-fishes, and through them to the 
 polyps. 
 
 " t The shell, in the fresh animal, is covered over with a thin 
 fleshy skin filled with calcareous points. This skin is fibrous 
 and contractile, being, in truth, the representative of the soft 
 fleshy covering that encases all the branches of an JEnorinite, 
 and which in Asterias moves the rays and spines. It is in fact 
 the animal itself; it forms the shell within and likewise wields 
 the external organs, the stiff prickles, when employed as instru- 
 ments of locomotion. Though more distinctly muscular than in 
 inferior zoophytes, and consequently capable of contracting more 
 energetically, it contains the power of separating earthy matter 
 from the sea wherewith it moulds the shell that gives it shape, 
 and also constructs the countless spines that stud the outer sur- 
 face of the body, all of which are built by slow precipitation of 
 calcareous particles secreted by the living skin itself. Imme- 
 diately beneath the living tegument is placed the shell, itself a 
 
32 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 structure, perhaps the most elaborately framed of any we have 
 had occasion to allude to : a piece of workmanship so exquisite, 
 so far beyond all human art, so visibly demonstrating sovereign 
 skill and boundless wisdom, that a sense creeps over the mind 
 as we proceed with all humility to contemplate so great a miracle. 
 And here we may observe that such examples of contrivance and 
 of obvious intention as are frequently displayed in what may be 
 termed the ruder mechanism of nature, often come with greater 
 emphasis upon the heart, than all the more mysterious wonders 
 that abound in natural science. 
 
 " The physiologist perceives at every step, proofs of design 
 which baffle human comprehension, but the ideas they raise are 
 vague and undefined, and so, of course, the application too is 
 indistinct ; but when we can, from first to last, perceive the end 
 in view, and understand the means of its accomplishment, the 
 mind is satisfied, and owns at once how great the foresight and 
 how grand the power of the Supreme Designer. 
 
 " The crust of the Echinus, when denuded of its spines, and 
 stripped of its external coverings, would seem to be an ordinary 
 shell, having its outer surface covered over with polished tuber- 
 cles, regularly arranged. Of these the largest are disposed in 
 lines that pass from pole to pole of the round box, like lines of 
 longitude upon the globe of the geographer. 
 
 " Intermixed among the larger tubercles are seen innumerable 
 smaller eminences of similar construction, but dispersed with less 
 precise arrangement, upon all of which, when in a living state, 
 spines were attached in corresponding number. Moreover, placed 
 at intervals between the spine-crowned tubercles are ten broad 
 bands, disposed in pairs, all pierced with countless holes ; these 
 too extend from pole to pole of the round box, and through 
 them, during life, the locomotive suckers passed, already noticed 
 as being used for climbing rocks or for attachment to some 
 foreign body. On cutting through the shell, so as to see its 
 inner surface, we perceive, to our surprise, that far from being, 
 as it appears externally, a simple shelly exudation moulded to 
 the form of the Echinus like the shells of lobsters or mollusca, 
 it is a very complex fabric built with most consummate art, con- 
 sisting of some thousand pieces varying in size, but shaped with 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 33 
 
 mathematical precision, and conjured with so much accuracy, 
 that the eye can but with difficulty trace the line of union. 
 Tell a human artisan, however versed in geometrical proportions, 
 to cut out a thousand plates, polygonal in form, and fit them to 
 each other, leaving not the slightest space between their margins 
 any where, so that the whole shall form a hollow sphere of certain 
 given proportions, how would he succeed ? Doubtless he would 
 pronounce the problem quite impracticable. But in the shell 
 before us, that is what nature has achieved most perfectly. 
 First, we observe five double rows of oblong plates, pentagonal 
 in form, which on their outer sides present the spine-supporting 
 
 tubercles. On either side are found innumerable pieces of a 
 smaller size, but equally exact in shape, through which are bored 
 the perforations for the ambulacral feet, and these again are 
 separated from another row of perforated plates by other inter- 
 mediate pieces having spines affixed externally. These plates 
 are mostly pentagons in form, with sides of various lengths, but 
 all combined, fit each other so closely, that their combination 
 seems to form one solid, compact shell. 
 
 " We shall not stop to count the number of the plates com- 
 prised in every series, or to calculate how many perforations are 
 provided for the feet. Let the reader try to number them when 
 
34 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 opportunity occurs, though here, numbers are of little conse- 
 quence. Let us rather ask why Nature in this case has chosen to 
 work by laws so complex, when we might suppose a simpler fabric 
 might have done as well ? why frame a shell composed of thou- 
 sands of small portions thus connected, when even in higher 
 animals all this elaborate device can be dispensed with ? A little 
 thought will convince us that, even here as elsewhere, Nature 
 has employed no useless superfluity of structure. To case the 
 animal in stone, would have been a simple process ; as we have 
 already seen that almost all the zoophytes secrete calcareous 
 matter in abundance ; but, when thus closed up in a stony shell, 
 how could the creature grow ? Here is the difficulty. We might 
 as well expect a Chinese lady's foot to grow while shod in iron, 
 as that an Echinus should expand from the small size it first 
 presents, to its adult dimensions, without some remarkable pro- 
 vision being made to allow of such an increase. Growth con- 
 stantly goes on, and yet the crust itself, being, when once formed, 
 devoid of life, and as incapable of growing as if made of marble, 
 cannot expand as do the bones of higher animals, neither is any 
 part left soft, but at all ages, the whole shell has the same com- 
 pactness and solidity throughout, and presents the same precise 
 distinctive form peculiar to the species. The only way in which 
 this difficulty could be met is, obviously, that which Nature has 
 adopted. 
 
 " The shell is made of numerous pieces, between the contiguous 
 margin of which, the shell secreting tegument dips down, adding 
 continually to the circumference of every piece, cretaceous parti- 
 cles, layer after layer, by which the superficial size of each pro- 
 gressively increases, whilst its form remains unchanged. The 
 thousand pieces that compose the shell, thus simultaneously be- 
 come enlarged, and as they never change their figure or the 
 relative proportions that they bear to all the rest, the entire 
 shell expands without the slightest deviation from the given form, 
 till it attains the limit of its growth. 
 
 " Examine well the spines. The base of every spine presents 
 a smooth concavity or socket, which exactly fits one of the 
 rounded tubercles already pointed out, upon the outer surface of 
 the shell, and forms a perfect joint. No matter how minute the 
 
OCEAN LIFE, 35 
 
 spines, be they as thin and delicate as th<; fine pile of velvet, 
 such as exist in the Clypeaster and in other flattened genera, or 
 large and club-shaped, as in Cidarites, the joint is equally com- 
 plete and movable in all required directions. In the last men- 
 tioned race, indeed, we see additional provisions made to give 
 secure attachment, the centre of each tubercle being furnished 
 with a little pit, from which arises a strong ligament that is im- 
 planted in the base of the appended spine to obviate all chance 
 of dislocation. 
 
 " To understand the mode in which the spines are all produced, 
 and fixed upon the body of the Echinus, we must again refer to 
 the soft tegument whereby the numerous pieces of the shell are 
 all secreted. The skin, which is, in fact, the living substance 
 of the creature's body, likewise constructs the spines, and if a 
 section of one of th'ese is prepared, taken from a recent speci- 
 men, each will be found, encrusted over with a layer of this soft 
 fleshy membrane, as were the stems of corals, or Crorgonice ; and 
 in like manner, the investing film is able to secrete cretaceous 
 particles, which are arranged, stratum investing stratum, with 
 such art and regularity, that few more beauteous objects can be 
 found, than one of these neglected spines." 
 
 " The suckers of the Echini, in all essential particulars, re- 
 semble exactly those of an Asterias, consisting of long projecti- 
 ble fleshy cylinders, which are protruded and rendered tense 
 by water, or some other fluid injected into them, from an appara- 
 tus contained within the body. The degree to which the protu- 
 sible tube can be exerted will of course differ in every genus in 
 proportion to the length of the locomotive spines, it being abso- 
 lutely necessary, that, however long the latter organs may be, 
 the prehensile portion of the sucker shall be able to reach be- 
 yond them ; so that in the long spined genera, of which, in warm 
 climates, some are found having spines several inches in length, 
 the tubes, with their appended adhesive discs, resemble little 
 cables thrown out to a distance, for the animals, in order to secure 
 an anchorage, or ropes whereby to hoist themselves from ledge 
 to ledge, of the steep rock, on which their food is found. 
 
 " These suckers that surround the mouth perform, besides, 
 
36 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 another duty, and may be compared to fishing lines, ready to 
 seize upon such prey as comes within their reach and drag it to 
 the mouth to be devoured." 
 
 HOLOTHUROIDEA. 
 
 "A HOLOTHURIA may be regarded in one light as a soft Sea- 
 Urchin, in another as a radiated animal, approximating the An- 
 nalides." " In common language they are generally known by 
 the appellation of * Sea cucumbers;' and in fact, to a casual 
 observer, the resemblance which they bear to those productions 
 of the vegetable kingdom, both in shape and general appearance, 
 is sufficiently striking. The integument which covers, or rather 
 forms the body, is entirely destitute of those calcareous pieces 
 which encase the Echini and Star-fishes ; but appears to consist 
 of a dense fibrous cutis of considerable thickness, covered exter- 
 nally with a thin epidermic layer. Beneath the cutis is another 
 tunic composed of strata of tendinous fibres crossing each other 
 in the midst of a tissue of a semi-cartilaginous nature, which is 
 capable of very great distention and contraction, and serves by 
 its elasticity to retain the shape of the body. Within this dense 
 covering are seen muscular bands running in different directions, 
 which by their contraction give rise to the various movements of 
 the creature. But although the calcareous shell of the Echinus 
 is thus totally lost, the locomotive suckers or feet already de- 
 scribed are still the principal agent employed in progression. In 
 many species, these organs are distributed over the whole sur- 
 face of the animal, and are protruded through countless minute 
 orifices which perforate the integument. In other cases, they 
 are arranged in five series, resembling the ambulacra of an 
 Echinus ; and in some instances they are only found upon the 
 middle of the ventral surface of the body, that forms a flattened 
 disc upon which the animal creeps somewhat in the manner of a 
 snail. The ambulacral feet themselves precisely resemble in all 
 the details of their structure those of the Asterias, and their pro- 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 37 
 
 trusion and retraction are effected in the same manner. The 
 mouth is a round aperture, as wide as a goose-quill, placed in 
 the centre of a raised ring at the anterior extremity of the body. 
 Around the oral orifice is placed a circle of tentacula, which are 
 apparently extremely sensible, and serve perhaps not only as in- 
 struments of touch, but as prehensile organs used for the cap- 
 ture of prey, or for assisting in deglutition." 
 
 " Sir John Graham Dalyell stated in 1840 that he had observed 
 the Holothuriae lose the tentacula, with the cylinder (dental ap- 
 paratus), mouth, ossophagus, lower intestinal parts, and the 
 ovarium, separating from within and leaving the body an empty 
 sac behind. Yet it does not perish. In three or four months 
 all the lost parts are regenerated, and a new funnel, composed of 
 new branches as long as the long body of the animal, begins to 
 exhibit the same peculiarities as the old one, though longer time 
 be required to attain perfection. Other species of the Holothu- 
 ria divide spontaneously through the middle into two or more 
 parts, all becoming ultimately perfect by the development of 
 new organs. Yet the anatomical structure of the whole genus 
 is so complex as to defy the skill of anatomists in discovering 
 the proper functions of some of the parts. A single Holothuria 
 has produced 5000 ova in the course of a night. Of one genus, 
 the Trepang, many species are eaten. In Mr. F. D. Bennett's 
 interesting 'Account of a Whaling Voyage round the Globe,' 
 we are told that there are two kinds of Trepang abundant on the 
 rocks at Raiatia, and they are very indolent animals. ' When 
 handled,' says Mr. Bennett, Hhe Trepang contracts its body in a 
 longitudinal direction, and should its tentacles be expanded they 
 are instantly concealed ; but no noise or agitation of the sur- 
 rounding water will excite these symptoms of alarm, or cause 
 any attempt to escape. They usually lie exposed in the shallow 
 waters, though we have very often seen them buried in beds of 
 coral sand, their plumy tentacles being alone exposed, and float- 
 ing in the water above, apparently as a lure for prey. Some 
 may also be observed lying on the rocks, their bodies completely 
 encrusted with coral sand, which may either have been accumu- 
 lated by a previous burrowing, or thus used as a disguise. It 
 would appear to be partly the instinct of the animal to take its 
 
38 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 prey in ambush ; but what that prey is, as well as the entire 
 economy of these Moluscs, remains a perplexing mystery. Their 
 intestines invariably contain many hard and solid masses of 
 madreporic rock or tree-coral, some of them more than an inch 
 in length, and all moulded as pellets to the calibre of the intes- 
 tinal canal. It is difficult to say how these stony bodies have 
 been obtained by the Trepang, though it is easy to conceive that 
 they may be rendered serviceable as nutriment by the assimila- 
 tion of the animal matter they contain. It is this animal which 
 the Malays of the Oriental Isles seek so diligently, for the supply 
 of the China market, where it obtains a good price when well 
 preserved. It is employed by the Chinese in the preparation of 
 nutritious soups, in common with an esculent sea-weed, Shark's 
 fins, edible bird's nests, and other materials, affording much 
 jelly.' Jaeger says the intestines are extracted, the animal then 
 boiled in sea-water, and dried in smoke." 
 
 CRUSTACEA. 
 
 " THE Crustacea pre-eminently make the waters their home ; 
 they are the aquatic division of that mighty host of living things, 
 that range under the title of ARTICULATA. In most respects, 
 CRUSTACEA are so much like insects, that the older naturalists, 
 and the illustrious Linngeus among the number, arranged them 
 under the great class INSECTA. They have, however, a greater 
 number of limbs ; the full provision being five pairs of true feet, 
 and three pairs of organs, which 'are called foot-jaws. Besides 
 these, a great number of the species have five or six pairs of 
 jointed limbs attached to the underside of the abdomen, which 
 are generally used for progression, and are called false feet. 
 Their mouth is furnished with three pairs of jaws and two pairs 
 of antennae. It must be borne in mind, however, that the total 
 complement of these members is not found present in every spe- 
 cies, some of them being wanting in certain extensive groups. 
 The researches of a naturalist who has paid much attention to 
 this class, Mr. Spence Bate, have shed a flood of interesting 
 light on the office of the organs last-named. Any one may easily 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 39 
 
 identify them in the Lobster or Prawn. Take the latter. On 
 each side of the long sword-like and spiny beak that projects 
 above the head, there is an organ consisting of three stout joints, 
 at the tip of which are three threads, of which two are of great 
 length, and formed of numberless rings, and the third is short. 
 These organs, then, constitute the inner pair of antennae. 
 Below these there is a pair somewhat similar, but they consist each 
 of five joints, and one long thread with a large flat plate on each 
 side. These are the outer antennae. The former are the organs 
 of hearing, the latter those of smelling. In the living animal, 
 the inner antennae are always carried in an elevated posture, and 
 are continually flirted to and fro with a rapid jerking motion 
 that is very peculiar, striking the water every instant. It is 
 very conspicuous in the Crabs, from the shortness of the organs 
 in question. To help the perceptions of the animal, the many- 
 jointed filament which strikes the water, is fringed with hairs of 
 great delicacy standing out at right angles to the stalk, so that 
 the slightest vibrations cannot fail to be conveyed to the senso- 
 rium. This may be called the outer ear ; but in the interior of 
 the basal joint, which is large and swollen, there is a cochlea, or 
 inner ear, having calcareous walls of delicate texture, to the 
 centre of which passes the auditory nerve. The outer antennae 
 differ greatly from the inner in their internal structure, though 
 they resemble them so much in form. In the Crabs, the basal 
 joints form a sort of box or compact mass, with an orifice on the 
 side next the mouth, closed or opened at pleasure by means of a 
 little door with a hinge, on the interior side of which a long bony 
 lever is fastened with the necessary muscles attached to it. In 
 the Lobster and Prawn the door is wanting, but the orifice is 
 protected by a thin membrane ; and in some of the lower forms 
 it is placed at the end of a strong spine or projection. In all 
 cases, however, the orifice ' is so situated that it is impossible for 
 any food to be conveyed into the mouth without passing under 
 this organ ; and of this the animal has the power to judge its 
 suitability for food by raising the operculum (or door) at will, 
 and exposing to it the hidden organ-Mine olfactory.' 
 
 " The 'crust,' or skin which envelopes the body, in these ani- 
 mals, differs from that of INSECTS, inasmuch as it generally 
 
40 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 contains a considerable portion of carbonate of lime. In many of 
 the smaller forms, as in the Shrimps and Prawns, it takes the 
 consistence of thin transparent horn ; but in the larger, as in 
 Lobsters and Crabs, it acquires a great density, is perfectly 
 opaque, and of the hardness of true shell or even of stone. In 
 the tips of the stout claws of the Crab, we see it at its maximum 
 of induration. 
 
 " The periodic casting of the skin is a needful provision for 
 growth in these animals, as in Insects ; in them it is confined to 
 the caterpillar state, in which alone growth takes place ; but here 
 it prevails, because growth is continued long after the perfect 
 form is attained. The rigidity of the encasing armor forbids 
 the possibility of increase in its capacity. The growth, there- 
 fore, is periodic. At certain intervals the hard crust is thrown 
 off in several pieces, a new crust having been prepared beneath, 
 which is at first soft, flexible, and expansible. The body, now 
 freed, instantly enlarges in all directions, and, in a few minutes, 
 has attained the full extent of growth needed. The crust at 
 once hardens, and in a brief space becomes as inflexible as was 
 its predecessor, admitting no further enlargement either of its 
 own surface or of the contained organs. The animal usually un- 
 dergoes this process in the most retired situation it can find, in- 
 stinctively conscious of its unprotected position when soft, and 
 apparently feeling sick and feeble. 
 
 "Another interesting circumstance in the economy of this 
 class, is the power of renewing injured or lost limbs. If one of 
 the joints of a Crab's legs be wounded, it would bleed to death 
 but for this provision. The animal, however, stiffens the hurt 
 limb, and suddenly throws it off, the separation invariably taking 
 place at the point where the second joint is united with the first. 
 A small gland is placed here, according to Mr. H. Goodsir, which 
 supplies material for future legs as required. ' When the limb is 
 thrown off, the blood-vessels and nerve retract, thus leaving a 
 small cavity in the new-made surface. It is from this cavity that 
 the germ of the future leg springs. A scar forms over the raw 
 surface caused by the separation, which afterwards forms a sheath 
 for the young leg.' 'As the growth advances, the shape of the 
 new member becomes apparent, and constrictions appear, indi- 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 41 
 
 eating the position of the articulation ; but the whole remains 
 unprotected by any hard covering until the next change of shell, 
 after which it appears in a proper case, being, however, still con- 
 siderably smaller than the corresponding claw on the opposite 
 side of the body, although equally perfect in all its points." 
 
 CIRRHOPODA. 
 
 "HOWEVER distinct in outward appearance, and even in their 
 internal economy, the creatures composing the primary divisions 
 of animated nature may seem to be when superficially examined, 
 closer investigation invariably reveals to the zoologist gradations 
 of structure connecting most dissimilar types of organization, and 
 leading so insensibly from one to another, that the precise bound- 
 ary-line which separates them is not always easily defined. The 
 Cirrhopoda, indeed, present a strange combination of articulated 
 limbs, united with many of the external characters of a Mollusk, as 
 will be at once evident from the examination of any species of Bar- 
 nacle, whether Sesile or pedunculated." "At first sight no two 
 objects can well be more unlike than a Barnacle and a Shrimp. The 
 former is inclosed in a true shell composed of many pieces united 
 either by shelly matter or by cartilage, which allow of the pro- 
 trusion and retraction of a hand of fine hairy filaments, the whole 
 permanently affixed to foreign objects either by a thick, flexible 
 stalk, or by a broad immovable base. The older naturalists as- 
 sociated these animals with the shell bearing MOLLUSCA, calling 
 them multivalves, and even up to very recent times they have 
 been considered as equally allied to the sub-kingdom just named 
 and to that in which they occur here. Mr. Charles Darwin, 
 however, in his admirable Monograph, has fully demonstrated 
 the close affinity which subsists between them and the CRUSTACEA, 
 of which he, indeed, considers them only a sub-division. I pre- 
 fer, however, to treat them as a class by themselves, believing 
 that the diversity between the groups is quite as great as that 
 which subsists between the CRUSTACEA and the ARACHNIDA, or 
 between the ARACHNIDA and the INSECTA. The Barnacle begins 
 life in a form exactly like that of a young Entomostracous Crus- 
 G 
 
42 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 taceau, with a broad carapace, a single eye, two pairs of antennae, 
 three pairs of jointed, branched, and well-bristled legs, and a 
 forked tail. It casts off its skin twice, undergoing, especially at 
 the second month, a considerable change of figure. At the third 
 month it has assumed almost the form of a Cypris or Cythere, 
 being inclosed in a bivalve shell, in which the front of the head 
 with the antennae is greatly developed, equalling in bulk all the 
 rest of the body. The single eye has become two, which are 
 very large, and attached to the outer arms of two bent processes 
 like the letters U U, which are seen within the thorax. 
 
 "In this stage the little animal searches about for some suitable 
 spot for permanent residence; a ship's bottom, a piece of floating 
 timber, the back of a whale or turtle, or the solid rock. When 
 its selection is made, the two antennae, which project from the 
 shell, pour out a glutinous gum or cement, which hardens in 
 water, and firmly attaches them. Henceforth, the animal is a 
 fixture, glued by the front of its head to its support. Another 
 moult now takes place ; the bivalve shell is thrown off, with the 
 great eyes, and their U-like processes, and the little Cirriped is 
 seen in its true form. It is now in effect a Stomapod Crustacean, 
 attached by its antennae, the head greatly lengthened (in Lepas, 
 &c.), the carapace composed of several pieces (valves), the legs 
 modified into cirri, and made to execute their grasping movements 
 backwards instead of forwards, and the whole abdomen obliter- 
 ated, or reduced to an inconspicuous rudiment. 
 
 "The sessile or stalkless Barnacles or Acorn-shells (Ballanidae), 
 appear to differ much in the formation of their shells from the 
 Lepadidae, (stalked,) but the diversity is produced by modification 
 of the same essential valves. 
 
 " The food devoured by the Cirrhopoda would seem to consist 
 of various minute animals, such as small Mollusks and micro- 
 scopic Crustacea, caught in the water around them by a mechan- 
 ism at once simple and elegant. Any one who watches the 
 movements of a living Cirrhopod will perceive that its arms, with 
 their appended cirrhi, are in perpetual movement, being alter- 
 nately thrown out and retracted with great rapidity ; and that, 
 when fully expanded, the plumose and flexible stems form an ex- 
 quisitely beautiful apparatus, admirably adapted to entangle 
 
.OCEAN LIFE. 43 
 
 any nutritious molecules, or minute living creatures, that may 
 happen to be present in the circumscribed space over which this 
 singular casting-net is thrown, and drag them down into the 
 vicinity of the mouth, where, being seized by the jaws, they are 
 . crushed and prepared for digestion. No sense but that of touch 
 is required for the success of this singular mode of fishing ; and 
 the delicacy with which the tentacula perceive the slightest con- 
 tact of a foreign body, shows that they are eminently sensible to 
 tactile impressions." 
 
 CONCHIFEBA. 
 
 " MOLLUSCOUS animals enveloped in a shell composed of car- 
 bonate of lime, forming two valves, connected by a joint, and 
 applied the one to the right, the other to the left side ; mantle 
 two-leaved, more or less open ventrally, generally with two orifices 
 behind ; gills four-leaved, no head, mouth placed at the angle of 
 the gills, furnished with lips and palps, sexes distinct ; young 
 undergoing a metamorphosis." 
 
 " The great majority of Molluscs which inhabit bivalve shells 
 constitute a very numerous and extensive class, distinguished 
 by certain characters possessed by them in common. Encased 
 in dense and massive coverings of such construction as to pre- 
 clude the possibility of their maintaining more than a very im- 
 perfect intercourse with the external world, and deprived even of 
 the means of communication with each other, we might natu- 
 rally expect their organization to correspond in its general feeble- 
 ness with the circumscribed means of enjoyment and limited 
 capabilities of locomotion allotted to them. Numerous species, 
 indeed, are from the period of their birth firmly fixed to the rock 
 which gives them support, by a calcareous exudation that cements 
 their shells to its surface, as is familiarly exemplified in the case 
 of the common Oyster ; or else, as the Muscles anchor themselves 
 securely and immovably by unyielding cables of their own con- 
 struction. The Scallop, unattached but scarcely better adapted 
 for changing its position, rudely flaps together the valves of its 
 expanded shell, and thus by repeated jerks, succeeds in effecting 
 
44 
 
 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 a retrogressive movement. The simple apparatus by means of 
 which shells are constructed, is the external membranous layer 
 that invests the body of the Mollusc, the mantle, as it has been 
 termed, and, whatever the form of the shell, it owes its origin en- 
 tirely to this delicate organ. When the animal is engaged in- 
 increasing the dimensions of its abode, the margin of the mantle 
 is protruded, and firmly adherent all round to the circumference 
 of the valve with which it corresponds. Thus circumstanced, it 
 secretes calcareous matter, and deposits it in a soft state upon 
 the extreme edge of the shell, where the secretion hardens and 
 becomes converted into a layer of solid testaceous substance. 
 At intervals this process is repeated, and every newly-formed 
 layer enlarges the diameter of the valve. The concentrix strata 
 thus deposited remain distinguishable externally, and thus the 
 lines of growth marking the progressive increase of size may 
 easily be traced. 
 
 " It appears that at certain times the deposition of calcareous 
 substance from the fringed circumference of the mantle is much 
 more abundant than at others : in this case ridges are formed at 
 distinct intervals ; or, if the border of the mantle at such periods 
 shoots out beyond its usual position, broad plates of shell, or 
 spines of different lengths, are secreted, which, remaining per- 
 manent, indicate, by the interspaces separating successively de- 
 posited growths of this description, the periodical stimulus to 
 increased action that caused their formation. 
 
 u Whatever thickness this shell may subsequently attain, the 
 external surface is thus exclusively composed of layers deposited 
 in succession by the margin of the mantle ; and, seeing that this 
 is the case, nothing is more easy than to understand how the 
 colors seen upon the exterior of the shell are deposited, and as- 
 sume that definite arrangement characteristic of the species. 
 The border of the mantle contains in its substance colored spots; 
 these when minutely examined, are found to be of a glandular 
 character, and to owe their peculiar colors to a pigment secreted by 
 themselves ; the pigment so furnished, being therefore mixed up 
 with the calcareous matter at the time of its deposition, colored 
 lines are formed upon the exterior of the shell wherever these 
 glandular organs exist. If the deposition of color from the 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 45 
 
 glands be kept up without remission during the enlargement of 
 the shell, the lines upon its surface are continuous and unbroken ; 
 but if the pigment be furnished only at intervals, spots or colored 
 patches of regular form, and gradually increasing in size with 
 the growth of the mantle, recur in a longitudinal series wherever 
 the paint-secreting glands are met with. 
 
 " The organs of hearing consist of a pair of transparent cap- 
 sules filled with a clear fluid. Each contains a glassy globule, 
 which constantly maintains a very singular and rotary motion, 
 that instantly ceases when the capsule is ruptured. These cap- 
 sules are situated in the foot. 
 
 " Organs of vision are much more obvious, at least in many 
 species, being often highly colored, very numerous, and promi- 
 nently situated." 
 
 GASTEROPODA. 
 
 " MOLLUSCOUS animals furnished with a distinct head, and a 
 fleshy crawling foot ; either naked or protected by a shell, for 
 the most part formed of a single piece, and generally spirally 
 turned; mouth provided with lips, and a ribbon-like tongue, 
 armed with rows of teeth ; eyes two ; tentacles two or four. 
 Young subject to metamorphosis. 
 
 " Extensively distributed over the surface of the land, or in- 
 habiting the waters either fresh or salt, there exists a very nu- 
 merous body of Mollusca, differing widely among themselves in 
 construction and habits, but distinguished by a peculiar locomo- 
 tive apparatus common to the entire class, by means of which 
 they are able to fix themselves to plane surfaces, and to move 
 from place to place by a slow or gliding motion. The Slug, the 
 Snail, the Limpet, and the Whelk, afford familiar examples of 
 their general form and appearance. 
 
 " The upper parts in the majority of species, are covered with 
 a fleshy cloak or mantle, the edges of which are free, in a greater 
 or less degree, and in some cases are expanded into great lateral 
 wings. In the Sea-hare (Aplysia), these expansions serve, by 
 
46 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 their waving motion, as swimming fins. The proper function of 
 the mantle-edge is, however, the formation and increase of the 
 shell ; and hence it is always found, in shell-covered species, on 
 that part of the body which is near the orifice. In a few species, 
 the shell is included within the substance of the mantle. A dis- 
 tinct head is always present, more or less. conspicuous according 
 to the degree in which it- projects from beneath the front of the 
 mantle. It is furnished with various organs of sense. The organs 
 of touch are one or two pairs of contractile tentacles, placed com- 
 monly on the back of the head. In some cases these can be 
 inverted and everted ; but more generally they are solid. The 
 hinder pair, where there are two, are often more complex in 
 structure than the others, and are, perhaps, the seat of the sense 
 of smell. Well-developed eyes are almost invariably present in 
 this class. They never exceed a single pair, and are generally 
 placed on some part of the tentacles, the hinder ones, when there 
 are two pairs. The most common position for these organs is at 
 the extremity of a short fieshy column, springing from the base 
 of the tentacle. In many species the eyes present an elaborate 
 structure ; the great Strombidce of the tropical seas, for example, 
 have eyes with l a distinct pupil and a double iris, equalling, in 
 beauty and correctness of outline, those of birds and reptiles;' 
 and many of our native genera, as Bucsinum and Murex, are 
 scarcely inferior, in this respect, to the Strombidce. 
 
 " There is always in these animals a distinct mouth, placed at 
 the front of the head, furnished with swollen, contractile lips, 
 often prolonged into a cylindrical proboscis. In many species, 
 as in Eolis, Tritonia, $c., there are two horny, sharp-edged 
 plates, which act as jaws, playing over each other, like the 
 blades of shears. Sometimes there is only a single jaw-plate 
 inserted in the palate. There is, beside the jaws, a fleshy band, 
 longer or shorter according to the genus, which performs the 
 function of a tongue. It is sometimes grooved along its surface, 
 and is always armed with horny teeth or spines, which are ar- 
 ranged in regular rows, both longitudinally and transversely. 
 The form, number, and pattern of these teeth vary greatly, 
 though always constant in the same species. They ' are amber- 
 colored, glassy, and translucent ; and being siliceous (they are in- 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 47 
 
 soluble in acid), they can be used like a file for the abrasion of 
 very hard substances. With them the Limpet rasps the stony 
 mullipore, the Whelk bores holes in other shells, and the Cuttle- 
 fish doubtless uses its tongue in the same manner as the cat.' 
 
 "In each transverse row, there is generally a variously-toothed 
 plate, pointing backwards, and overlapping the base of its pre- 
 decessor ; while on each side of this there are several lateral 
 teeth in the form of curved spines which arch inwards. The 
 tongue of the Limpet is longer, when extended, than the whole 
 animal ; that of the Whelk has a hundred rows of teeth, while 
 the great Slug has one hundred and sixty rows, with one hun- 
 dred and eighty teeth in each row. The stomach is sometimes 
 armed with horny plates and teeth, as in the* Sea-hare (Aplysia), 
 which feeds on leathery Fuel. 
 
 " The shell is formed in the same manner as in the CONCHI- 
 FERA, by the folding back of the edge of the mantle. Very 
 many species carry on the hinder part of the body a horny or 
 shelly plate (Opereulum), which accurately closes the aperture 
 of the shell, when the animal has withdrawn into its recesses. 
 The form of this appendage is ordinarily that of a very flat cone, 
 made by successive layers, each a little larger than its predeces- 
 sor, or a flattened spire. The common Top-shells (Trochus,) 
 afford good example of the spiral operculum." 
 
 PISCES. FISHES. 
 
 "To whatever portion of the animal world we turn our attention, 
 we find the lowest and least perfectly organized tribes to be in- 
 habitants of the water. To dwell upon land, necessarily demands 
 no inconsiderable share of strength and activity, limbs sufficiently 
 strong to support the weight of the body, muscles possessed of 
 great power and energy of action, acute and vigilant organs of 
 sense, and, moreover, intelligence and cunning proportioned to 
 the dangers and necessities of terrestrial existence. 
 
 "The inhabitant of the waters, on the contrary, although 
 less highly gifted, may be fully competent to enjoy the position 
 
48 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 it is destined to occupy. Being constantly buoyed up on all 
 sides by a dense element, it is easily supported at any required 
 altitude without much muscular effort ; but feeble limbs are re- 
 quired to guide its path through the water, and slight impulses 
 suffice to impel it forward. 
 
 " The surface of the body of fishes, is in most instances 
 covered by numerous scales, which vary considerably in size and 
 substance in different species. The arrangement of these scales 
 exhibits considerable uniformity. Each scale is attached to the 
 fish by its anterior edge ; and the manner in which the scales 
 overlap each other in different genera, is variable, and gives an 
 appearance of form to each scale which in reality it does not 
 possess. By maceration in water, scales exhibit a series of 
 laminae, the smallest in size having been first produced : they re- 
 semble a cone, the apex of which is outward, the smallest being 
 in the centre ; hence the appearance of numerous concentric 
 lines all of the same shape, which mark the growth. 
 
 " The fins are important, not only as organs of motion, but as 
 affording by their structure, position, and number, materials for 
 distinguishing orders, families, and genera. The membranes of 
 the fins are thin, and more or less transparent, supported by 
 slender elongated processes of bone, some of which consist of a 
 single piece, which is pointed at the end ; such fin rays are called 
 spinous rays. Others are formed of numerous portions of bone 
 united by articulations, and frequently divided at the end into 
 several filaments ; these, from their pliant nature, are called soft 
 or flexible rays, and two leading divisions in systematic arrange- 
 ment are founded on this difference in structure. The number of 
 fin rays in each fin of different examples of the same species, is 
 not always exactly alike. The names given to the different fins 
 are derived from the part of the body to which they are attached. 
 
 " The use of the operculum or gill covers, is to close the aper- 
 ture behind the gills. The blood in fishes, while passing through 
 the gills or branchiae, receives the influence of oxygen from the 
 water which enters by the mouth and goes out by this aperture. 
 In the fishes included in the first three orders, the gills are so 
 formed, and so freely suspended, that the water bathes in its 
 passage, every part of their surface. 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 49 
 
 " The branchiae, or gills, in fishes possess complex powers, and 
 are capable of receiving the influence of oxygen, not only from 
 that portion of the atmospheric air which is taixed with the water, 
 but also directly from the atmosphere itself. 
 
 " The eyes in fishes are observed to occupy very different posi- 
 tions in different species. In some they are placed high up, near 
 the top of the head, but more frequently on the flattened side of 
 the head, but always so situated as to best suit the exigencies of 
 the particular fish. 
 
 " The sense of hearing has by some been denied to fishes, per- 
 haps because they exhibit no external sign of ears, but the 
 Chinese, who breed large quantities of the well known Gold-fish, 
 call them with a whistle to receive their food. Sir Joseph Banks 
 used to collect his fish by sounding a bell ; and Carew, the histo- 
 rian of Cornwall, brought his Grey Mullet together to be fed, by 
 making a noise with two sticks. 
 
 " But from the rigid nature of the scaly covering of the gene- 
 rality of fishes, it is probable they possess but little exter- 
 nal sense of touch ; but they are not wholly unprovided 
 with organs which, in the selection of their food, are of essential 
 service. The lips in many species are soft and pulpy; the 
 mouths of others are provided with barbules or cirri, largely 
 supplied with nerves, which are doubtless to them, delicate organs 
 of touch, by which they obtain cognizance of the qualities of 
 those substances with which they come in contact. The Gur- 
 nards may be said to be provided with elongated, flexible, delicate 
 fingers, to compensate for their bony lips. It is a rule, almost 
 without exception that I am aware of, that those fishes provided 
 with barbules or cirri about the mouth, obtain their food near 
 the ground ; and these feelers, as they are popularly called, ap- 
 pear to be a valuable compensation to those species, which, re- 
 stricted by instinctive habits to feeding near the bottom of water 
 that is often both turbid and deep, must experience more or less 
 imperfect vision there from the deficiency of light. The olfactory 
 nerves in fishes are of a very large size, and their sense of smell may 
 be presumed to be acute, from the selection they are known to make 
 in their search after food ; and the advantage said to be gained by 
 
50 OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 the various scented oils with which some anglers impregnate 
 their baits. 
 
 "The form of the teeth in fishes is various; in general it re- 
 presents that of an elongated cone, slightly curved inwards to 
 assist in holding .a prey which is frequently alive. Sometimes 
 the form is that of a short and rounded tubercle, adapted for 
 crushing ; in some fishes the teeth are so small and numerous, 
 as to have the appearance of the hairs of a brush ; while in 
 others they are thin and flat like the incisor teeth in the human 
 subject. Some fishes that are without teeth in the mouth, have 
 them in the throat, this is particularly the case in the Carp, and 
 the allied species of the family of the Cyprinidce generally. 
 Fishes have cold blood ; that is to say, the blood does not, in 
 general, rise appreciably above the temperature of the element 
 in which they swim. It is invariably red. The heart consists 
 of one auricle and one ventricle, which receives the blood from 
 the veins, and sends it to the gills for renewal by the absorption 
 of oxygen ; whence it is circulated through the body in arteries. 
 Both the arteries and veins are perfectly closed vessels. In many 
 fishes there is a large bladder situated within the body between 
 the spine and the bowels ; it assumes various forms, and is always 
 filled with air, which, in marine fishes, is principally composed 
 of oxygen. It is supposed to be connected with the buoyancy of 
 the animal, and hence is often called the swimming bladder ; 
 but there are structural reasons for considering it to be the first 
 rudimentary form of an air-breathing lung. 
 
 " The air bladder does not occur in all fishes; some fishes, and 
 those particularly that live near the bottom of the water are 
 without any. ' The swimming bladder of fishes/ says Dr. Koget 
 in his excellent Bridgewater Treatise, ' is regarded by many 
 of the German naturalists as having some relations with the re- 
 spiratory function, and as being the rudiment of the pulmonary 
 cavity of land animals ; the passage of connection with the oeso- 
 phagus being conceived to represent the trachea.' Hervey long 
 ago observed 'that the air in birds passed into cells beyond the 
 substance of the lungs ; thus showing a resemblance to the 
 cellular lungs in reptiles, and the air-bladder in fishes.' M. 
 Agassiz, in dissecting a species of Lepisosteus, a fresh water 
 
OCEAN LIFE. 
 
 fish of the waters of America, found the air-bladder composed 
 of several cells, with a canal proceeding upwards into the pha- 
 rynx, and ending in an elongated slit, with everted edges, resem- 
 bling a glottis or tracheal aperture. However obvious may be 
 these relations of structure, it is still difficult to believe that 
 there can be any analogy in function, when it is recollected that 
 one-fourth of the fishes known are entirely without air-bladders, 
 and that two-thirds of the other three-fourths have neither canal 
 nor aperture for external communication, but that all are pro- 
 vided with gills. The search for these relations of structure in 
 animals of different classes, is among the most interesting of 
 the investigations of the comparative anatomist." 
 
 THE HIPPOCAMPUS. 
 
 " Mr. Lukis, who had in 1835 two of these animals, which had 
 been living twelve days in a glass vessel, at the time of writing 
 said, < an appearance of search for a resting place induced me 
 to consult their wishes by placing straws and sea-weed in the 
 vessel; the desired effect was obtained, and has afforded me 
 much to reflect upon in their habits. They now exhibit many 
 of their peculiarities, and few subjects of the deep have displayed 
 in prison more sport or more intelligence.' 
 
 " When swimming about they maintain a vertical position ; 
 but the tail is ready to grasp whatever meets it in the water ; 
 quickly entwines in any direction around the weeds, and when 
 fixed, the animal intently watches the surrounding objects, and 
 darts at its prey with great dexterity. 
 
 " When both approach each other, they often twist their tails 
 together, and struggle to separate or attach themselves to the 
 weeds ; this is done by the under part of their cheeks or chin, 
 which is also used for raising the body, when a new spot is 
 wanted for the tail to entwine afresh." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Algae. (Sea Weeds.) ; I " . J T 1 
 
 Poriphora. (Sponge.) *"- . ^-V^ 4 
 
 Zoophytes of old authors, . i } 9 
 
 Sertularidse, . . . * 11 
 
 Anthozoa Asteroida, -7*. .- . 15 
 
 Gorgonidse, . . s ... ,,,> 15 
 
 Pennatulidse, * . . 16 
 
 Actiniadge. (Sea Anemones.) . 17 
 
 Acalephse, i'i'" ! f ':;" '".-' , ; ^^ 22 
 
 Echinodermata. -(Asteroidea.) .*- > :T . 24 
 
 Echinoidea, >'-r^ - . , ; **h 30 
 
 fiolothuroidea, ' '. v f <. .- ^^ 
 
 Crustacea, > . . . F 38 
 
 Cirrhopoda, . . ; ,- ---M if.;, 41 
 
 Conchifera, iv i ; ,. . . 43 
 
 Gasteropoda, . . . . .45 
 
 Pisces. Fishes, . . . 47 
 
 The Hippocampus, . . . .51 
 
Trochus araucanus . 
 
 Stem, and cup of 
 Poljp ofRcnilla animcana, Sertalarin pinaster, 
 
 Tiiaa nifiecl . 
 
 maanifieif. 
 
 Murex patayonicus 
 
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