Fig. 15.

nute than itself. Finally it disappeared as the other had done, and I saw it no more.

Fig. 16.

Figure 16

represents the largest pebble brought up by the lead.

It is

about a quarter of an inch long, very dark round the edges, and of a grayish green on the top. It has a fawn - colored band running round it similar to the "lucky stones" met with in England and Ireland. It would be the "highest disrespect," and wanting in reverence to "the little people" (the fairies), if you did not hasten to pick it up, and, while so doing, make a wish, which the good people will be sure to have answered. I made a wish when I took it from the tallow, and if "it comes true" I shall have it mounted in a ring or a pin to show my great respect for these sea-nymphs. I suppose they belong to the same family, and go ashore to dance in the ring on the green sward, with their cousins when the halcyon gales of summer blow. I see you smile, but believe me when I tell you the belief of such aerial creatures is not exploded. I have of late met hundreds who firmly believe in their presence at times.

Figure 19. Here is a little animal which has caused me a vast deal of thought, and even now I can not assert as a positive fact its true history, but I shall tell you what I know of it, and shall feel happy to be set right if in error, or shall be gratified for any farther information concerning it. After heavy September gales there is an immense quantity of débris of various kinds washed up on the shores of the islands border-. ing along the Southern States. On sea-weed and other marine products you will find these little animals, denuded of their shells, clinging by their long cilia in bunches to these waifs of the ocean. Off Cape Hatteras the lead has brought them up in the shell and out of it. Some "whale's food" which was brought me from the Pacific was composed entirely of this small animal. There was not a Clio-the sup posed food of the Greenland whale-to be found, nor a specimen of the Clionide in the jar. Nothing but these small creatures, tangled in an inextricable web, a mass of green, pulpy, gelatinous, fibrous-looking jelly. It was quite a vivid green all over, except when a dark spot was seen, where an animal more fully developed than the others would be found, they hung together in this mass entirely by the long cilia or hairs. We know the Clionida are naked, with two little fins, which they ply very actively when they have room to swim, which from their vast numbers is not often the case. I think the "whale's food" changes with the season, and that several varieties serve them during certain portions of the year. These small shells cover the coast of some parts of Greenland, to judge from the examination under the microscope, of the sand and earth from thence. perceive, is only a half of one. It belongs to the family of the Buccinum, commonly called "Whelks." It is coarse and not highly polished, of a dark-brown color, with a lighter shade of the same between the ribs. The animal is of a transparent green hue, while in the shell. The cilia, which are very numerous, are transparent, except at the tips, where they are greenish. It is fastened into the shell by two horny substances at its back, which are left be

The shell, you

hind when it quits the shell, which is likely when they have reached their maturity, leaving it to sink or be washed on the most adjacent shore. They float away, clinging to each other, away through the genial Gulf Stream, gathering in a larger mass as they go, until they reach the Pacific, when the Balana mysticus, the true "Greenland whale," comes rushing through this green field, its mouth wide open, with its whalebone sieve, engulfing myriads of these small animals at every gurgitation. They have the power while in the shell of drawing up the cilia; but when the shell is cast off these become much fewer in number, and cling closely round each other. The back of the shell was in the tallow, so the insect was not injured. It had the power of passing the cilia over the edge of the shell, to render itself more secure. In trying to force it up with the needle to put it on the slide, almost every bristle or cilium was torn from its body, which exhibited nothing under the glass but a pulpy speck, with two small sacs filled with a greenish fluid. Its head was elongated into somewhat of a beak, which was drawn in to the first section of its body, and was never again protruded, as it died immediately when it was forced from the shell. Figure

shape. It was a dull, ugly shell, gray and black on the edges. It had acted as a guillotine to a poor marine mite, as a head and some cilia hung from its edge.

The

Figure 22 is a variety of Clausilia, although defective or broken at the mouth. It was very much rubbed, was coarse, and grainy, which testified to its long resistance to the action of the sea. A little black dot, with three fibrous, stiff cilia protruded from the mouth. head of a parasite, which had taken possession of this shell during the life of the former occupant or afterward. The true animal resembles somewhat a snail, and has tentacula instead of cilia. They are generally found near water, on the banks of rivers, at the foot of trees, in moss, or under lichens. It may have been washed into the ocean in the débris of some river, or there may be aquatic varieties belonging to the ocean, of which we only know of what is on the surface, and that much very superficially.

Fig. 20.

20 is the back part of the shell. I hope at some future day to follow up this little animal, intruding itself before me off and on for nearly twenty years.

Fig. 21.

Figure 21. This shell 'belongs to the genus Lectraria, judging from the hinges with its two cardinal teeth, and the small pit of a triangular

Fig. 23.

Figure 23 represents grains of gravel, worn into very small bits; I might almost say they were grains of coarse sand. They were all quartz.

Figure 24 is a Pectenculus, very beautiful. It was as transparent as glass, with the slightest shading of calcareous matter. It had a slight fringe round it, much worn away in parts. It was nearly covered with grains of sand, which protected it from the rough shock of the waves. There was no sign of an inhabitant; it must have been tenantless a long time. I took the grains of sand very carefully away from around it, and luckily copied it before I touched it, as it crumbled to pieces when I touched it with the for

ceps.

Fig. 24.

Fig. 22,

Fig. 25.

Fig. 38.

Here my studies of these deep-sea mysteries You will perceive, gentle reader, must end. I that I have given no names at a venture. have contented myself with illustrating them as correctly as was in my power under the circumstances at the time, and giving them a strict re-examination when ashore. I give you merely the families they belong to, leaving for another day, and perhaps a better chance, a more scientific and especial description.

I hold the opinion, that the immense varieties in the numerous host found in the depths of the sea to be so fathomless that the leads of no two ships may bring up the same animals or specimens, even if only a few yards apart; therefore where was the use of seeking names for animals which perhaps neither you nor I may ever see again, as you perceive they appeared singly, therefore were not in colonies to authorize an expectation of finding them very numerous at some future day?

I must recall to you here Mr. Maury's beautiful paragraph: "The wonders of the sea are as marvelous as the glories of the heavens, and they proclaim in songs divine that they too are the works of holy fingers." My illustrations are strictly

"Authentic tidings of invisible things,
Of ebb and flow, and ever-during power,
And endless peace, subsisting at the heart
Of everlasting agitation."

with rather a toss of the head. "She has had her eye on you ever since you came to the house,

HOW IT HAPPENED.

should fall in love; and had plainly seen, in my mind's eye, the lady who alone could fill my heart! She should be tall, brilliant, and stately, with glorious black eyes and hair. Her mind should be stored with knowledge, and her heart should be filled with-well, with me, of course. As to time, I had resolved not to even look for my paragon until I was twenty-seven.

On my twenty-second birthday I left the paternal roof and proceeded to New York to earn a fortune for the future Mrs. Smith and myself. And in less than a month fell desperately, irretrievably in love with a sweet young blonde, tiny and fragile, who hated the very sight of a book, and looked with sublime indifference upon my unhappy self.

Oh how I loved her!

She was a second-floor boarder in the house which I had selected as a temporary abidingplace an orphan, under the protection of a maiden aunt. There were four other lady boarders in the house, but Julia Darley, my Julia, was the flower of them all.

Mrs. Green, the keeper of the boarding-house, was the mother of a maiden who, compared with my unattainable Julia, was as rock is to crystal, as darkness is to light; and yet this maiden, even while my heart throbbed for another, dared lift her eyes admiringly to mine! Call it not conceit the thing was plain.

Imagine my feelings then, when, one day sauntering into the parlor, and finding Miss Green there alone, I was accosted with:

"Mr. Smith, I feel I ought to communicate my intentions to you-unless, indeed, through the gossip of the house, you know them already."

Shuddering at the innovations of modern novelists, and intending to abash her into silence, I replied:

"I am acquainted with them, Miss Green, and I must say, once for all, that both circumstances and inclination prevent me from being willing in any way to-to-"

"Oh, as for that," interrupted Miss Green, loftily, "I shall not press the matter; though [with a sigh] I am very sorry to lose you, and mamma I know will be keenly disappointed. My up-stairs rival is too powerful, I find."

"Miss Green!" I gasped, " pray explain yourself I do not comprehend--your rival?”

"Yes, my rival," responded Miss G., without a blush; "for as you have refused in advance the offer I was about to make you, I must certainly infer that you have promised yourself to Miss Darley."

Bewildered, and yet determined not to appear behind the age, I managed to say, with a ghastly smile:

"I am sorry, my dear lady, that you feel compelled to draw such an inference; but how do you know that Miss Darley wants me?"

"Oh! that is no secret," returned Miss Green,

floor that she only wished she could secure you." "Miss Darley said this?" I exclaimed, horror-stricken, yet not utterly wretched.

"Certainly she did; it's her way. But you're not bound, of course, to follow her fortunes unless you choose; or if you do not like her—"

"Like her!" I echoed, passionately; "I" I was going to say, "I love her! I idolize her!" when the landlady came in the room, just in time to save my dignity from utter wreck.

Seizing the opportunity and my hat at the same time, I bowed hastily to both ladies, and left the apartment.

In the solitude of my own room I sat down to meditate on the remarkable interview through which I had just passed. For Miss Green and her unwomanly offer I simply entertained feelings of contempt. But what meant those insinuations concerning my Julia? Dear, dear girl! Can it be that she loves me in secret? But those horrible words, "Meant to secure me if she could!" No, no-I will never believe she said them. At most she may, in the innocence of her heart, have confided her feelings to a false friend. I will never believe it. And yet Miss Green called her her "rival." Women can detect each other's feelings more quickly than we men can. Oh, what if Julia love me, after

It

Well, when I returned to my room that afternoon I concluded to relieve myself then and forever. To say that I spoiled a quire of "cream-laid" is to make a moderate estimate; finally I produced a missive which I flatter myself would have done credit to any young man of twenty-two under similar circumstances. was an epistle to Julia, telling her of my deep, my abiding love, of my prospects in life, of my resolve to win fortune and renown for her sake. In short, I told her all my hopes and fears; begged her, in case she could at all reciprocate my emotions, not to divulge to mortal soul what had passed between us; and concluded by imploring her to pen me a line in reply.

Carefully folding my letter, and directing the envelope in my best hand to "Miss Julia Darley," I watched an opportunity, slipped it under her door, and flew up stairs four steps at a time.

Unluckily for me, I ran into a nervous boarder, named Hopkins, at the first landing-place. As I appeared flushed and confused, he at once regarded me with suspicion.

"Holloa, Smith! what on earth is the matter with you?"