Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/64

Rh specks of opaque white; these organs are usually much spread horizontally, with their tips often curled inward. Another remarkable peculiarity of this species, is the degree to which it becomes transparent, by distension with water. The effect of this is not the general swelling of the body as in A. crassicornis, which is remarkable for the same habit effected in another way, but the great dilatation of the disk and tentacles, which then expand to an extraordinary degree, both becoming so diaphanous as to be almost destitute of colour, and showing with absolute clearness the convoluted filaments within the septal divisions of the interior.

The third variety I have alluded to, is principally found in deep water, though I have obtained one or two remarkably large examples of it on Byng Cliff Ledge. It is larger in size, and coarser in appearance than the other kinds, and is always tinged with a bluish-grey or livid-green hue, though the characteristic marks and habits are always to be recognised. It is fond of taking up its abode within the angular cells or chambers of Eschara foliacea, which affords a retreat to so many and so various creatures.

I found beneath a stone another specimen of a worm that seems to be uncommon, but which I have met with also near Ilfracombe, as I have recorded elsewhere,—the Black Sand Worm (Arenicola branchialis); and a much more elegant animal of the same class, which was new to me, Sigalion boa; it bears a general resemblance to the scale-bearing Polynoes, but is drawn out to a much greater length, with very numerous segments. Crawling in a pool occurred also