Weekly Trinity journal., 1873-06-28
MARVELS OF THE DEEP.

The London Times, reviewing DR..
Wyville Thompson's account of the
dredging cruises of her Majesty's ships
Porcapine and Lightning, during the
summers of 1868, 1869 and 1870, summar-
izes as follows:
The neither darkness, then, so far from
being a lifeless waste, Nems almost eve
rywhere with creatures not only more
fantastic, but larger, than their shallow
water cousins and the paddler about
rock pools and tide sands at watering
places will learn from this book that far
away at sea, over that 100 tathom line to
the westward which marks the ancient
shore of the European continent, are
found sea monsters far bigger, as we'll as
far uglier and far more beautiful, than
were ever transferred to an aquarium
that, to give two instances, the capella,
the phantom shrimp" which may be
found on weed, sitting upright like
monkey, holding on by its hind claws,
and with ghastly grimaces, mesmerizing
all passers-by with his lore claws, sits in
like guise upon sponges a mile or two
deep in darkness-there, however, not a
quarter of an inch long, but three inches
long and that the nymphons, sea spiders
that crawl out from under stones, and who
having no body to speak Of, carry their
stomach, for economy of space, packed
in long branches up the inside of each
leg-are found in the depths of the Arc
tic Sea, not as here, half an inch, but
two feet in diameter.
1t is impossible to give even sketch
of the geological treasures which have
been brought to light by the cruises of
these vessels, not forgetting those of the
Swedish naturalists, and of the yacht No
ma, whose owner Mr.. Marshall Hall, we
hope may be emulatcd by other yachts
men. Among their discoveries are true
worms, sea urchins, starfsh, including
the magnificent and novel Brmiga, wor-
thily named after the goddess Fraya's
favorite jewel Ormoids {" stalked flow
ers of living stone,") corals, and above
all, sponges of forms either new or till
now known only as fossil or strangely
enough as inhabitants of shallow water.
But the strangest as we'll rs the most
beautiful Inhabitants Of the deep sea ooze
are the CLASSY sponges, in which the siel-
eton is composed, not of horny fbres, as
in the sponges of our dressing rooms, but
of flexible flint, often more delicate than
the finest spun glass. The best known of
these is the Venus flower basket, or Eu-
plectella, which lives imbedded in the
mud Of the seas of the PHILIPPINES, sup
ported by a glass frill, standing up round
it like Queen Elizabeth's ruff" Twenty
years ago there was but one known spcci-
men in Europe. 1t may how be bought
for 3Os., or less, in any curiosity shop,
and it is strange that this,-one of the
most exquisite, both in form and texture,
Of all natural objects-is not oitener seen,
already, as drawing room ornament
Equally curious, even more puzzling in
its construction, is the glass-rope sponge
or Halonema which roots itself in the
mud by twisted wisp of strong flint nee
dies, somewhat on the principle Of screw
pipe. So strange and complicated is its
structure that learned men for long
time could literally make neither head
nor tail fit, as long rs they had only
japanese specimens to study. Which
was top and which bottom which the
thing itself and which parasites growing
on it whether it was a sponge or II 700
phyte, or something else, could not be
settled, and is in some minds scarcely
settled now. But the discovery OF the
same, or closely allied species, in abun-
dance from the Butt OF the Lews down to
Setubal, on the coast of Portugal, where
the shark fishers call it "seawhip," has
given our savants specimens enough on
which to make up their minds, and has
added another form to the list Of those
common, strangely enough, to our cas-
and to those OF japan. Scarcely less
beautiful and strange are the Holtenas
and their cognate torms-holow spOnges
built up Of glsssy spicules, and rooted in
the mud by glass hairs, in some cases be-
tween two and three feet long, rs hexi-
bic and graceful as tresses Of snow white
silk.