CHISELLING ANEMONES.

19

"There! Don't place it too near him; give him room— an inch all round. Not too hard! Never mind the toughness of the rock-clay-slate isn't made of butter; but with patience and steady blows-What! you've rapped your knuckles instead of the chisel? Well, it does fall out so sometimes. While you are hammering, I'll try elsewhere."

Accordingly I am left stretched on a sloping ledge, leaning into a pool of about a foot deep, where I have to bang away at my chisel, not in the least seeing the effect of my blows, for the crumbling of the rock has made the water the colour of a London gutter. From time to time I pull my chisel out, and feel with my hand to ascertain progress. At last a piece of the rock comes away, and I bring up the Anemone named Crassicornis-a very ill-favoured gentleman, to judge by his present aspect; but I throw him into the jar of sea-water, in full reliance on what he will be tonight or to-morrow. He has cost me twenty minutes' hard labour; but he was worth it.

If you are anxious to know why all this pains was taken to chisel away the rock, you may learn a curious fact -namely, that these Anemones, like Achilles, are invulnerable, except in one spot. They will bear an extraordinary amount of cutting and tearing if you keep their base unlacerated. Not only have I cut off portions of them for microscopic examination, as you would cut buds off a tree, but, while I write this, there are several of the exquisite little Auroras and Venustas which have been cut or torn in half by the splitting of the stones on which they rested, and each half is as vigorous as if nothing had interfered with its integrity. In the course of some weeks

no one will be able to trace in them that they have been wounded. The Abbé Dicquemare relates how he cut an Anemone in two, transversely: the upper portion at once expanded its tentacles, and began feeding; in about two months tentacles began to grow from the cut extremity of the other portion, and thus he got two perfect Anemones in place of one. And yet these animals, so indifferent to wounds, rarely survive a slight laceration of their base. At least the Crassicornis, or coriaceous anemone, does not. I have not experimented in this way on the other kinds, and will limit my statement to the Crassicornis. This is the reason why a chisel is necessary; for the "Crass" clings to the rock with a vigour which generally defies finger-nailsunlike the Anthea or the Mesembryanthemum, which yield to a very light fingering.

I have got my prize, but have so disturbed the water that it is useless to remain longer by this pool. There are plenty more. I poke and peer into them without result, till at last a huge wall of stone rears itself in my path; and I suspect the other side is rent with fissures, rugged with ledges of promise. It is so. I squeeze into one of these fissures, where various coloured Sponges, compound Ascidians, Serpulæ, and Algæ, with drops of water pendent from their tips, are just discernible through the darkness. In vain I strain my eyes, now familiar with obscurity; nothing tempts me. The Sponges and the Rednoses squirt water at me incessantly; the Algæ drip, drip, drip; sporadic Crabs trundle away in all directions; but nothing solicits my desires. You want to know why I poke into that dark hole? Because Experience the best of schoolmasters, were not the fees so

CONTENTS OF A ROCK-POOL.

21

heavy!—has taught, that the two conditions most favour-
able to most of those marine animals we are in quest of are
Darkness and Depth of water. They are impatient of the
light, and prefer darkness even to many fathoms. When I say
they, I mean most Molluscs, Crustaceæ, Annelids, and Zoo-
phytes. Jellyfish seek the light, and float at the top of the
sunny sea; but we shall find none of them to-day, so that
fissures, caves, and the under side of boulders, must be our
fields. It is well for the young hunter to bear in mind this
requisite of darkness. Let him turn over all stones, peer
into all fissures, push aside the overhanging Fucus, or long
waving Oar-weed, and see if the pools beneath do not con-
tain what he seeks. And when I say look, he must not
understand thereby a careless casual glance, but a long
deliberate scrutiny. He must allow the eye to rest long
enough on the spot to lose the perplexity occasioned by a
hundred different details, and must let "the demure travel
of his regard" pass calmly over it. Sometimes the pool is
so dark and still, that it is not until your nose-tip is cold
against the surface that you know there is water. We have
just climbed up a ledge, and looked down into a pool.
Our footing is somewhat insecure, but we cling savagely,
and call down few blessings on the heads of the countless
Balance which stud the rock, and tear our hands. There,
now, we have settled into a position in which we can work.
Look at that Gem, with its lovely tiger-tentacles; it has
just swallowed a small fish, and is now, while digesting,
opening its arms for more. And there, on the green broad
leaves of the Ulva, crawl two Sea Hares (Aplysia). (See
Plate II., fig. 4.) What queer creatures! One would fancy

them slugs which had been troubled with absurd caprices of metamorphosis, and having first thought of passing from the form of slugs to that of hares, changed their weak minds, and resolved on being camels; but no sooner was the hump complete, than they bethought them that, after all, the highest thing in life was to be a slug-and so as slugs they finished their development. Not, however, without further caprices, since, instead of filling its mouth with teeth to grind its vegetable food, the Sea Hare transposes its teeth into its stomach, or rather into one of its stomachs, and not the one nearest the mouth, but the last of the series, as it passes into the intestine; so that after the food has undergone preparatory digestion, it has to be further ground by these teeth. This strange animal, as harmless as a butterfly, carries a traditional terror to the vulgar mind. The Romans believed-what would they not believe that the mere sight of it caused sickness, sometimes death; and pregnant women were especially warned against it. Apuleius happened to have a curiosity about this animal, for which he was accused of magic.* On every coast the fishermen who happen to know anything about the Sea Hare (and they know very little of animals they do not sell), assure you of its poisonous qualities; and the bright purple fluid it throws out, when irritated, although perfectly

* Dans sa défense, Apulée répondit qu'en effet il avait observé des lièvres marins, mais seulement dans le but de satisfaire une curiosité qui n'offrait rien de condamnable. La description qu'il donne de petits osselets existans dans l'estomac de ces animaux, prouve qu'il les avait observés en naturaliste.— CUVIER, Hist. des Sciences Naturelles, i. 287.

SEA HARES AND SEA SLUGS.

23

23

harmless, may well excite the suspicion of the ignorant. Whenever you find one crawling on the sea-weed, or left stranded by the retiring tide, carry it home and study it. Few molluscs are so easy to dissect; and the attention of anatomists will profitably be directed to it, because several errors are stereotyped in our treatises, which prove that, since Cuvier, few have minutely examined its structure.

But to return to our hunt. We place these Sea Hares in a small jar by themselves, and quickly add thereto a broad white ribbon of tiniest beads, which is coiled up against the under side of the ledge, and which we see with joy to be the spawn of the Doris-another sea slug, if a name so ugly as that can properly be applied to a creature so attractive. (Plate II., fig. 2). Really this pool is enchanting! How gracefully the Polypes wave from its sides, like fairy fir-trees in the summer air. The longer we look, the more beauties and wonders we discover. I have just detected an Ascidian* standing up like an amphora of crystal, containing strange wine of yellow and scarlet; and crawling about the root of that Oar-weed, I see various Annelids of great beauty; we must have the root-the more so that it bears some Botryllus clustering round it. You want to know what is that jelly-like globule no bigger than a pea? I can't answer; but probably the ovum of some fish. At any rate, the rule is to carry home whatever one does not know, and identify there, if possible; so pop the globule into a phial. Having made this haul, we may now begin to hammer away

* Plate I., fig. 4, represents a compound Ascidian, magnified; the solitary Ascidian is less elongated, and of about the size figured.