The ocean / By P. H. Gosse.

  • Gosse, Philip Henry, 1810-1888.
Date:
[pref. 1845]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The ocean / By P. H. Gosse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    cucumber, whence they are sometimes termed Sea- cucumbers ; in tbe water, however, the body is often Sea-cucumbers (Holuthurice). ^greatly lengthened, and, on being touched, is sud- denly contracted so as completely to alter the form. The mouth is at one end of the animal, furnished with shelly teeth converging to a centre, as in the Star-fishes, and surrounded by numerous tentacles. Mr. Crawfurd describes it as (t an unseemly-look- ing substance, of a dirty brown colour, hard, rigid, scarcely possessing any power of locomotion, nor appearance of animation.” The usual length is eight or nine inches, the diameter about an inch, but some are two feet in length, and seven or eight inches in girth. They frequent the shallow waters, on reefs and in lagoons ; often exposed on the rock, but sometimes nearly buried in the coral-sand, their feathered tentacles alone appearing and floating loosely in the water. The large kinds are often Q