reached the extremity, launched itself off from it; after moving about with a sort of swimming or rolling motion in a horizontal direction for some time it lowered itself gradually, and in effecting this, the long flexible leaf of the Vallisneria was bent with an undulating motion, corresponding exactly with every movement of the snail, clearly showing that it had a firm attachment to the extremity of the leaf. On another occasion a L. glutinosus gradually rose from the surface of a piece of submerged rock, and when at the distance of about three or four inches from it, stayed its progress, floating about in a circumscribed horizontal direction for some time; at last it rose suddenly and rapidly to the surface, evidently from the rupture of its thread of attachment. The most convincing proof, however, of this fact, that I can, perhaps, adduce, and one that I have often repeated with all the before-mentioned Limnei, is that when the snail has been some inches distant from the supposed point of attachment, a rod or stick has been carefully introduced, and slowly drawn on one side between them in a horizontal direction, and by this means the snail can be made to undulate to and fro, obeying exactly the movement of the rod: this requires to be done very gently, as, if too much force is used, the web is broken, and the snail rises rapidly to the surface."[1]
The wide expanse of ocean from the equator to the poles is tenanted by a class of swimmers, small, indeed, in the number of its species, but countless in the hosts of individuals of which they are composed; the Pteropoda. Some of these inhabit shells, which for delicacy and transparency,
- ↑ Annals of Natural History. October, 1852.
