Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/208

Rh pressed. In the former action, the water permeates the felt, and fills the vacuum formed between them and the back. As soon as it is full, they collapse, and the filtered fluid, now deprived of its oxygen, is forcibly expelled at the anal groove. Well may the adoring Psalmist include among "the riches" of God; the "things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts," wherewith "this great and wide sea" is filled!

A female of this quaint little Crab (Ebalia Pennantii) was obtained, the knobbed carapace of which carries a specimen of that curious pellucid Bryozoon, Alcyonidium gelatinosum. This is a fruit-like body about an inch in length, nearly cylindrical, with the tip rounded, and the base diminished to a footstalk springing from a minute point. The beautiful bell-like Polypes are projecting by hundreds from every part of the surface, distinctly perceptible even with the naked eye. Though this parasitic appendangeappendage [sic] springs from the very centre of the tuberculous cross on the back of the Crab, it projects forward over the head, a position which has relation to the burrowing habits of this liittlelittle [sic] Crustacean.

The latter is inert, folding its legs on itself when touched, and remaining motionless for some time. It buries itself in the gravel, descending backwards: this is a somewhat slow process, suited to its usual phlegmatic habit. It brings its hindmost pairs of feet on each side together, then thrusting down their united