Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/283

228 from personal observation, Professor Forbes gives its length as ranging from six to eight inches. My specimen, however, measured eleven inches in length, though the posterior extremity was contracted, and the proboscis was but little everted, so that under other circumstances its length would certainly have exceeded a foot. The measurement was made, too, when the animal was at perfect rest, and not elongated by crawling. Its thickness was just ths of an inch, uniformly cylindrical, without any noticeable contractions or enlargements, except the swelling of the tail, and the diminution to form the proboscis.

The surface of the body can scarcely be called rough, for, though it is reticulated, the skin is delicately smooth, glossy, and iridescent. The reticulations are produced by longitudinal and transverse lines, the former about th, the latter th of an inch apart, very regular. Both series are indented striæ, becoming evanescent by being pressed out, when the body is swollen or bent. The hinder extremity, for about an inch, is nearly smooth, forming a swollen oval sac, the furrows of both series being lost on its upper half in irregular corrugations. This part is pearly white, but the whole body besides is of a dull greyish buff, the skin reflecting opaline tints.

The anterior extremity is suddenly diminished into a proboscis of about half the diameter of the body, which is capable of being concealed within the body, or protruded by being turned inside out like a stocking. Prof. Forbes says its surface is minutely granulated, but this expression does not convey a correct idea of its structure. It is densely covered with very minute