Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/122

Rh nature. By perseverance, however, I captured several, and found them to be the One-spotted Goby (Gobius unipunctatus); a tiny fish about two inches long, and well marked by a spot of rich dark blue on the dorsal fin. It proved a lively and pleasing tenant of the Aquarium.

Lying flat on the mud, in many cases with not more than an inch of water above them, enjoying the light and warmth of the sun, were multitudes of Pleuronectidæ of several species, such as the Brill, the Plaice, the Dab, and the Sole. All that I saw were very young, from an inch to two inches in length. Though easily caught, they are of little value, for they do not live long in a tank, and are uninteresting from their sluggish habits, as they lie perfectly still on the bottom for hours together, trusting for concealment to the similarity of their russet colour to that of the sand.

By digging in the sand some specimens of the Launce (Ammodytes) were discovered; a slender silvery fish, which has the habit of burrowing into the wet sand on the retreat of the tide; and also some Bivalves, as Pullastra aurea, and Venus casina. But the most interesting thing to me was the great multitudes of Actiniæ that were expanding their flower-like disks on the surface of the mud beneath the shallow water. I was for some time disposed to consider this as a strange species, partly from its colour, but principally from what appeared to me its unusual locality and habit; but I am at length persuaded that it is the Daisy Anemone (A. bellis); though widely differing from those individuals which dwell in the hollows of the honeycomb limestone near Torquay.