occupies its time in turning head over heels till
it casts its first covering and alters its
proportions. The true and recognisable crab
does not, however, even then appear: this
singular form being at last elaborated after a series
of changes and transformations which can only
be likened to those of a pantomime. Of the
crabs, some occupy their own mansions, which
they leave periodically as their substance
increases and requires larger accommodation: while
others, not constructing houses for themselves,
occupy shells which they seize for the occasion,
and which would seem suitable enough if one
may judge from the tenacity with which the
tenant retains possession.

The lobster, the prawn, and the shrimp,
are less varied in their habits. They all
change their shells from time to time as they
grow too large for them, and, during the
period of change, conceal themselves in holes
and mud.

The little complicated shells which, under the
name of barnacles, adhere to ships' bottoms, or
which, under the title of balanus, are found on
every rock and on many shells by the sea-side, are
also crustaceans. Many others exist, adding to
the list of marine animals, and each is important
in its own sphere.

Of annelids or worms, a few are strictly
marine, and among these are some that are
the most curious and most highly-coloured as
well as the most puzzling of the creatures
inhabiting salt water. The sea-mouse is one of
them; the serpula, its tufted head projecting
from a stony tube, is another; some, again,
assume, for defence, particles of sand, shell, or
stone: while others are able to pierce stone, and
eat into almost any substance they come in
contact with.

Of all annelids, none is, at the present
time, more interesting than the unknown
inhabitant of a little tube recently brought up
from the sea bottom, beneath some two miles
of water. At this vast depth, are living animals
to be found, and among them are representatives
of those who penetrate all organic substances in
search of food. Let our telegraph companies
tremble and endeavour to take precautions in
time; for their wires, buried at the bottom of
the sea, are pursued in mid-ocean by relentless
foes bent on destruction.

Soft animals, often defended by shells, abound
in the ocean, and form an important class of its
inhabitants. The cuttle-fish is the emperor of
such molluscs, and is represented in all seas by
some worthy cousin. The cuttle-fish, or squid,
of our own shores, ranges under various
representative forms both in the Atlantic and Pacific,
but there is one variety covered and protected
by a chambered shell, the nautilus, which is
confined to the southern seas. Few animals
inhabiting the ocean are better adapted for attack
or defence than these. They are often of large
size; they have powerful jaws and beaks; very
long arms, on which are suckers of a peculiar
kind, holding fast to any object they touch,
and many of them have a provision of dark
fluid which they eject into the water when they
desire to obscure it, either to escape from
enemies, or conceal themselves from their prey.
Amongst the most unsightly, these animals are
also the most highly organised and the most
powerful of their class, and though only used
locally, they are well adapted for human food.
They are the last representatives of a group
formerly much more important in the seas than
they now are. The Ammonites fossil shells,
familiar enough to most collectors, are the
remains of extinct genera very closely allied
to the nautilus, and they seem, at former
times, to have played a very active part in the
ocean.

Innumerable multitudes of naked soft animals,
extremely varied in size and shape, brilliant in
colour and of very peculiar habits, all belonging
to the class mollusca, inhabit the ocean at various
depths, and form a large part of the food of
many important tribes of fishes. Nothing can
be conceived more delicate and beautiful than
some of them, no limit can be expressed in
figures to their numbers, and they show a series
of transitions from animals totally undefended, to
others, such as the oyster, closely protected in a
solid stone construction. The shells with which
these creatures are fortified, are again as strangely
varied and as singular as any productions of
nature. Look at the spider shell, the cone, the
cowry, the wentle-trap, the top-shell, the harp-
shell, the Venus-shell, the clam, and a thousand
others; watch them as the animal comes out
from its coat of mail or puts forth its feelers in
search of news and food. Examine the oyster
in search of the pearl, follow the indication of
the ship-worm or stone-piercer from the bored
surface of the wood or stone, dredge for the shell
containing the imperial purple dye, and endeavour
to learn something of the rich treasures of
the sea in this wonderful department. Be
assured that the treasury is not easily exhausted.
It will last your time and mine, and yield
abundance of wealth "so long as the moon
endureth."

There are some very curious shells found of
late years in almost all seas, and distinguished
from the ordinary kinds as much by a peculiar
texture of the shell itself, as by an arrangement
of the gills in the animal. The Terebratula is
one of these, and it, like the cuttle-fish, is as
interesting in reference to former time as to
present existences. Terebratuliform shells and
nautilus-like shells, in fact, are among the earliest
records of creation in the various rocks
containing fossils, and their remains are especially
abundant in the oldest rocks. Modern species
are found in our own seas generally at some
depth.

Very minute compound animals, at one time
regarded as polyps, but now referred to
mollusca, are sufficiently common among the
seaweeds on all shores, and float in open water,
being not unfrequently phosphorescent. They
glide sometimes through the sea in long chains
of united animals, and they are exceedingly
remarkable as illustrations of a method of