and decayed under it, destructive to animal life. We can see dark
crannies and caves beneath; yet too narrow to allow the surge to
wash in, and keep the surface clean. It will be a fine menagerie
of Nereus, if we can but turn it.

Now the crowbar is well under it; heave, and with a will; and so,
after five minutes' tugging, propping, slipping, and splashing, the
boulder gradually tips over, and we rush greedily upon the spoil.

A muddy dripping surface it is, truly, full of cracks and hollows,
uninviting enough at first sight: let us look it round leisurely,
to see if there are not materials enough there for an hour's
lecture.

The first object which strikes the eye is probably a group of milk-
white slugs, from two to six inches long, cuddling snugly together
(Plate IX. fig. 1). You try to pull them off, and find that they
give you some trouble, such a firm hold have the delicate white
sucking arms, which fringe each of their five edges. You see at
the head nothing but a yellow dimple; for eating and breathing are
suspended till the return of tide; but once settled in a jar of
salt-water, each will protrude a large chocolate-coloured head,
tipped with a ring of ten feathery gills, looking very much like a
head of "curled kale," but of the loveliest white and primrose; in
the centre whereof lies perdu a mouth with sturdy teeth - if indeed
they, as well as the whole inside of the beast, have not been
lately got rid of, and what you see be not a mere bag, without
intestine or other organ: but only for the time being. For hear
it, worn-out epicures, and old Indians who bemoan your livers, this
little Holothuria knows a secret which, if he could tell it, you