Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/62

Rh rocks. (See Plate II). Here the teeth are overarching glassy plates finely pointed, and minutely saw-toothed along their edges, while the lateral combs are composed of curved teeth, gradually diminishing in thickness.

Perhaps every variety is accompanied by some variation in food or mode of feeding. The Periwinkle, I see, has a manner of his own, which differs slightly from that of the Trochus. When he eats, he separates two little fleshy lips, and the glistering glass-like tongue is seen, or rather the rounded extremity of a bend of it, rapidly running round like an endless band in some piece of machinery, only that the tooth-points, as they run by, remind one rather of a watch-wheel. For an instant this appears, then the lips close again, and presently re-open and the tongue again performs its rasping. It is wonderful to see;—perhaps not more wonderful than any other of God's great works, never less great than when minutely great; but the action and the instrument, the perfect way in which it works, and andand [sic] the effectiveness with which the vegetation is cleared away before it, all strike the mind as both wonderful and beautiful.

There are other things, however, besides Periwinkles and Tops to be found on these cleft and weed-draped ledges. The very first hour I spent in searching them, I found several animals that were new to me, and some that are marked as rare in zoological works. Among them was an Actinia of much beauty, which was known hitherto only by a single specimen found here by Mr. W. Thompson, and described by him under the name of A. clavata. I afterwards found