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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    and Indian Oceans by two or three species nearly allied to it in structure, but furnished with a glassy shell. One of these is named Hyalea tridentata ; Glass Shells. (Hyalea tridentata, and Cleodora pyramidata.) its shell is small and somewhat globular, resembling a bivalve without a hinge; the hinder part being consolidated, and armed with three spines ; the sides have a narrow fissure through which a semi-trans- parent membrane protrudes. The animal is furn- ished with a wing or fin on each side, which it uses as oars. A kindred species (Cleodora cuspidated) is of extreme delicacy and beauty. The shell is glassy, and colourless, very fragile, nearly in the form of a triangular pyramid, with an aperture at its base, from which proceeds a long and slender glassy spine; and a similar spine projects from each side of the middle of the shell. The animal is like the preced- ing ; but the hinder part is globular and pellucid, and in the dark vividly luminous, presenting a sin- gularly striking appearance, as it shines through its perfectly transparent lantern. Both of these are found floating in great numbers on the surface of the sea. Among the sea-shells which attain a large size in