b1629371X_0111_088_2
* “A Naturalist’s Rambles on the Devonshire Coast.” By P. H. Gosse, A.L.S. London: John Van Voorat. 1853.
A NATURALIST AT THE SEA-SIDE.
Stew of our readers as have paid a visit to the marine aquarium at the Gardens of the Zoological Society, in Regent’s Park, must have looked with intense interest upon the variegated and beautiful contents of the glassy prisons erected there for the safe custody of the sea anemones and other members of the tribe of British zoophytes. It is with great pleasure, therefore, that we introduce to their notice a volume which largely enters into the private history, if we may so speak, of this curious department of creation, and which, to the attractions of an engaging style and healthy piety, adds the accompaniment of several elaborately coloured drawings of the animals themselves.*
Mr. Gosse, who for some years has been honourably distinguished by his varied attainments as a naturalist, having when an invalid had occasion to spend a portion of his time upon the beautiful coast of Devonshire, near Torquay and Ilfracombe, devoted his leisure to examining the rocks and pools of the neighbourhood for contributions to his private vivarium. Rich and varied, accordingly, were the stores which he gathered. With our reader’s permission, we shall suppose ourselves accompanying him, net in hand, on one of his morning excursions, until at last, after wandering through some of Devonshire’s green lanes, we find ourselves upon the sea-shore, with a noble expanse of ocean before us. The first spot at which we pause is one of those little pools left by the efflux of the tide, and which the careless observeri would pass over as containing nothing remarkable. Not so, however, does Mr. G-osse; lie pauses, and thus describes the beauties of this miniature,:
ocean.
“There is something exceedingly charming in such a natural vivarium as this. When I go down on my knees upon the rocky margin, and bring my face nearly close to the water, the whole interior is distinctly visible. The various form 1 and beautiful tints of the sea-weeds, especially the purple flush of the clioncirus, are well worthy of admiration; and I can see the little shrimps and other crustacece busily swimming from weed to weed, or pursuing their instinctive occupation among the fronds and branches—an ample foresb to them. Tiny fishes of the blenny genus are also hiding under the shadow of the tufts, and occasionally darting out with quivering fail; and one or two brittlestars are deliberately crawling about, by means of their five long and flexible arms, in a manner that seems a ludicrous caricature of a man climbing up by his hands and feet— only you must suppose an additional arm growing from the top of his head. The variety of their1 colours, and the singular but always elegant patterns in which they are arranged, render thes little star-fishes attractive.
“Such a calm, clear, little well as this, among the rugged rocks, stored with animal and vegetable life, is an object well calculated to attract a poet’s fancy. The following description must have been drawn from just such a rock-pool, and most true to nature it is:-
‘In hollows of the tide-worn reef,
Left at low water glistening in the sun,
Pellucid pools, and rocks in miniature,
With their small fry of fishes, crusted shells,
Rich mosses, tree-like sea-weed, sparkling pebbles
Enchant the eye, and tempt the eager hand
To violate the fairy paradise.’”

It is not, however, only the rocky cistern wn thus teems with life; Mr. Gosse finds subjects for his microscope in much smaller objects than even a tidal pool. We have all heard, and often by the sea-beach read, “ sermons in stones ;“ but moss interesting is the description Mr. Gosse has given of what may be seen on a piece of rock not larger than a penny-piece. It is, unhappily for our purpose too long for extract, but the following general remarks which he has given illustrate the same truth
“The economy with which God works in nature has been often noticed, and especially that phase of it which consists in the profusion and variety of existence that can be crowded and sustained in a given space. A plant is growing in the earth; it occupies a certain amount of room, and appears to speak loosely, to fill it. But on examination WO may find other plants growing on it; its back, the angles of its branches, its buds, its leaves, the interior of its blossoms, its seed-vessels, are Occupied by many species of spiders and insects which find ample room for the carrying on of their respective functions and the enjoyment of their lives; not to speak of the birds, and butterflies and bees, and flies, that are but temporary visitants—mere comers and goers. Many of these minute animals have other creatures living on them as parasites, the earwig that is snugly ensconced in the tube of that flower is tenanted by a long
intestinal worm; yonder caterpillar, so calmly
gnawing out sinuous cavities in the edge of a leaf, I
supports within a colony of infant ichneumons;
the little wild bee that has just alighted on this
blossom would be found to carry about sundry
maggots whose black heads peep out from beneath
the rings of his abdomen. Even the very juices
that circulate in the vessels of the plant probably
bear along in their course the germs of invisible
animalcules; for if we take the leaves, or the
or the stems, and make an infusion of
them, carefully covering the vessel to prevent intrusion from without, we shall find in a day or two
that the water is swarming with living creatures
of various kinds, known to microscopic observers
infusory animalcules.”
Amidst a field of animal life so varied and
minute, it will easily be believed that Mr. Gosse
found occupation enough. The richness of his
volume renders it indeed difficult to make selection,
where all is so good. We take, however, almost I
random the following description of one of the
minutest of the tenants of the deep.
“I have been for the last two or three hours
engaged in watching two of the most important
functions, respiration and circulation, under
circumstances of unusual facility for the study.
In looking over one of my vivcrria, a pan contain-
ing marine plants and animals that have been
undisturbed for several weeks, I found, attached
to a sea-weed, a tiny globule of jelly, not bigger
than one of those little spherules wherewith
homopathy supplants the jalaps and rhubarbs
that our grandmothers believed in, and swallowed.
it is an ascidian mollusk, one of that tribe of
humble animals that form the link by which the
oyster is connected with the zoophyte; and it
appears to belong to that genus which the learned
Savigny has named clavellinc. Transparent as
the purest crystal, it needed only to be transferred
microscope, and the whole of its complex interior
ma drop of its native sea-water to the stage of the
organism was revealed. The old sage’s wish that
man had a window in his breast, that we might
see into him, was more than realized in this case:
the whole surface of the little animal was one
entire window; its body was a crystal palace in
miniature.”
After describing the curious internal appa-
of this zoophyte, Mr. Gosse describes the
animal’s minute body as studded apparently with
rings of a singular tharger in ceaseless motion,
In truth,” continues Mr. Gosse, “it is a
beautiful aight to see forty or more of these oblong
rings, all set round their interior with what loolc
like the cogs on a watch-nljee1, dark and distinct,
running round and round with au even, moderately
rapid, ceaseless motion. These black running
figures, so like cogs and so well defined as they
are, are merely an optical delusion; they do not
represent the cilia, but merely the waves which
the cilia make; the cilia themselves are exceed-
ingly slender and close-set hairs, as may be seen
at the ends of the ovals, where a slight altera-
tion of position prevents the waves fi-om taking
the tooth-like appearance. Sometimes one here
and there of the ovals ceases to play, while the rest continue and now and then, the whole are
suddenly arrested simultaneously as if by magic,
and presently all start together again, which has a
most charming effect. But what struck me as
singular was, that while in general the ciliary
wave ran in the same direction in the different
ovals, there would be one here and there, in which
the course was reversed; and I think that the
animal has the power of choosing the direction
of the waves, of setting them going and of stop-
ping them, individually as well as collectively.
“ I am afraid my attempt to describe these pheflowers,
nomena is but partially successful: I am sure it
cannot convey to you any adequate idea of the
spectacle itself. Have you ever gazed with in.
terest on a complicated piece of machinery in
motion, such as is common in our large manufac
as
turing houses? If so, I dare say you have felt a
sort of pleased bewilderment at the multitude of
wheels and bands, rolling and circling in incessant
play, yet with the most perfect steadiness and
regularity. Something of that sort of impression
was made on my mind by the sight of the respiat
ratory organ of this tiny ascidia.”
It is by the rotation of these cilia and the
vortex which they create, that this little animal
gets its prey. The mode in which this is accomvital
pushed is well described by Mr. Gosse when
delineating the habits of another species of zoo-
phyte. The action he has vell compared to a
living whirlpooL Indeed, a vessel once within
the suction of the maelstrom has as much chance
of getting out, as the prey on which these little
creatures feed, when once it is entangled within
their complex machinery.
“In order,” says Mr. Gosse, “to make this
action intelligible, it is necessary to premise that a
stationary polype, being unable to seek its food,
must be provided with means to bring it within
reach; the cilia accomplish this; they create an
impetuous current in a certain definite direction,
and form a vortex in the surrounding water, whose
minute floating animalcnle near is drawn into this
effects are felt to an incredible distance. Any
whirlpool, the centre of which is the bottom of the
polype’s bell; once within the circle, it is whirled
round and round, descending at each gyration till
at length it is within the fatal circle; the glassy
tentacles encompass it with a wall on every side,
L and it still whirls round with ever increasing
velocity in the giddy dance, and at length is suckratus
ed into the yawning abyss at the bottom—the
gaping throat, which expands with a treacherous
embrace as the helpless atom enters, and thcii
closes over it with a strong muscular contraction,
forcing it down into the stomach, no more to
emerge alive. But if, in performing the gyration
within the bell, the floating atom should be driven
too near the margin, it might possibly escape
through the interstices of the tentacles, for they
do not stand in actual contact. To prevent the
contingency, the cilia of the tentacles are endowed
with an exquisite sensibility ; and if an object but
touch the tip of one of these most minute hairs,
the irritability of the tentacle is excited, and it
immediately moves inward with that sudden jerk,
which throws the poor animalcule right back into
the very whirl of the vortex.”
In different parts ot his work, Mr. Gosse describes the mode in which another species, the madrepore, so well known m its fossil form to the frequenters of Torquay, takes its prey. The passage is full of interest; although we may remind our young readers, that experiments with insect life, though excusable when undertaken in scientific pursuits, become culpable when practised for the mere indulgence of a wanton curiosity.
“The feeding of the madrepores affords much amusement; they are very greedy, and the presence of food stimulates them to more active efforts and the display of greater intelligence, than we should give them credit for.
“I put a minute spider, as large as a pin’s head, into the water, pushing it down with a bit of grass to a coral, which was lying with partially exposed tentacles. The instant the insect touched the tip of a tentacle it adhered, and was drawn in with the surrounding tentacles between the plates, near their inward margin. Watching the animal now with a lens, I saw the small mouth slow1’ open, and move over to that side, the lips gaping unsymmetrically; while at the same time, by a movement as imperceptible as that of the hour-hand of a watch, the tiny prey was carried along between the plates towards the corner of the mouth. The latter, however, moved most, and at length reached the edges of the plates, and gradually took in and closed upon the insect, after which it slowly returned to its usual place in the centre of the disk.
“After some quarter of an hour, observing that the tentacles were more fully expanded than before, and inferring that so tiny a morsel had only whetted the coral’s appetite, I caught a house-fly in the window pane, and taking hold of its wings with a pair of pliers, plunged it under water. The tentacles held it at the first contact as before, and drew it down upon the mouth, which instantly began to gape in expectation. But the struggles of the fly’s legs perhaps tickled the coral’s tentacles in an unwonted manner, for they shrank away, and presently released the intended victim, which rose to the surface like a cork; only however to become the breakfast of an expectant actinia bellis, which was much too wise to reject or to let slip so dainty a prey. The poor coral evidently regretted the untoward necessity of letting it go, for his mouth—I will not say ivatere4 for being under water the expression might be open to criticism, but—geped for some time after the escape.”
There is, at first sight, something painful to the sensitive mind, in the contemplation of the spectacle presented in the preceding extract, of the extent to which death is interwoven with the entire system of animal life; but it must be remembered that the present economy of nature has been constructed in anticipation of a state of things which has been affected to an extent of which we are not acquainted, by the blighting presence of moral evil.
The compensations which these zoophytes have received in the way of protection against the animals that attack them are also very curious. One species, anguinaria spatulata, has at the extremity of its person a sort of door opening and shutting with a kind of spring—a beautiful piece of mechanism contrived for the protection of the little delicate inhabitant, permitting him to inhale the surrounding fluid without exposing himself, and enabling him in a moment to shut and bar hi5 gate on the approach of danger. The madrepore, again, is armed in a different way. On examin. ing its tentacles carefully, Mr. Gosse found them like a quiver full of arrows, being loaded with a species of bristles, which he conjectures to be so many darts destined to be injected into the bodies of the minute animals which form its prey. As lie pressed the tentacles or quivers containing these darts, a surprising number issued. “To see,” he says, amazed at the spectacle, “these thousands of little vesicles discharging their missiles in rapid succession, like the flight of arrows in ancient bat. tles, was an astonishing sight.”
Some curious observations are made in another part of the work on those animalcules which impart luminosity to the deep; and we cannot better close our notice of this charming volume, which we strongly recommend to our readers, than by giving the following specimen of Mr. Gosse’s descriptive powers, in the narrative of an excursion when the luminous qualities of these insects were brought prominently under his notice.
“I was coming down lately by the steamer from Bristol to Ilfracombe in lovely summer weather. Night fell on us when approaching Lynmouth; and from thence to llfracombe, the sea, unruffled by a breeze, presented a phenomenon of no rare occurrence, indeed, to those who are much on the water, but of unusual splendour and beauty. It was the phosphorescence of the luminous animalcules; and though I have seen the same appearance in greater profusion and magnificence in other seas, I think I never saw it with more delight or admiration than here. Sparkles of brilliance were seen thickly studding the smooth surface, when intently looked at, though a careless observer would have overlooked them; and as the vessel’s bow ploughed up the water, and threw oft’ the liquid furrow on each side, brighter specks were left adhering to the dark planks, as the water fell off, and shone brilliantly until the next plunge
washed theni away. The foaming wash of the furrow itself was turbid with milky light, in which glowed spangles of intense brightness. But the most beautiful effect of the whole, by far, and what was novel to me, was produced by the projecting paddle-boxes. Each of these drove up from before its broad front, a little wave continually prolonging itself, which presently curled over outwardly with a glassy edge, and broke. It was from this curling and breaking edge, here and there, not in every part, that there gleamed up a bluish light of the most vivid lustre, so intense that I could almost read the small print of a book that I held up over the gangway. The luminous animals evidently ran in shoals, unequally distributed; for sometimes many rods would be passed, in which none or scarcely any light was evolved, then it would appear and continue for perhaps an equal space. The waves formed by the summits of the swells behind the ship continued to break, and were visible for a long way behind, as a succession of luminous spots; and occasionally one would appear in the distant darkness, after the intermediate one had ceased, bearing no small resemblance, as some one on board observed, to a ship showing a light by way of signal. The scene
recalled the graphic lines of sir Walter Scott:-
“‘Awaked before the rushing prow,
The mimic fires of ocean glow,
Those lightnings of the wave;
Wild sparkles crest the broken tides,
And flashing round, the vessel’s sides
With elfish lustre lave;
While far behind, their 1i’ light
To the dark billows of the night
A blooming splendour gave.”

“While on this subject I will mention the charm-
ing spectacle presented by some of the sertularian
zoophytes, in the dark. Other naturalists, as
professor Forbes, Mr. Hassal, and Mr. Lands-
borough, have observed it before me, and it was
the admiration expressed by them at the sight
that set me upon witnessing it for myself. I had
a frond of lam maria digitata., on whose smooth
surface a populous colony of that delicate zoophyte
lceomeclea ,qeniculata had established itself. I
had put the frond into a vessel of water as it came
out of the sea, and the polypes were now in the
highest health and vigour in a large vase in my
study. After nightfall I went into the room in
the dark, and taking a slender stick, struck the
frond and waved it to and fro. Instantly one and
another of the polypes lighted up, lamp after lamp
rapidly seemed to catch the flame, until in a second
two every stalk bore several tiny but brilliant
stars, while from the regular manner in which
stalks were disposed along the lines of
the creeping stem, the spectacle bore a resemblance sufficiently striking to the illumination
of a city; or rather to the gas jets of some figure
of a crown or V. R., adorning the house of a loyal
citizen on a gala-night; the more because of the
momentary extinction and relighting of the flames
here and there, and the manner in which the successive ignition appeared to run rapidly from part
to part.”
The volume contains, we may add, many very
pleasing descriptions of rural scenery, and some
interesting anecdotes on general subjects, very
happily told.