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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    extraordinary power in grasping, as well as aiding it in obtaining its prey. In other respects, with regard to its eyes, its antennas, its jaws, we shall find, if we carefully examine it, that minute as it is, being scarcely an eighth of an inch long, its wants have been accurately remembered and well supplied. A few other British insects, likewise very small, dis- play similar instincts, some of them inhabiting holes in the sand, very near low-water mark, and there- fore entirely submerged a great portion of their time. On our rocky shores may be found in abundance creatures still more minute than these, whose man- ners, lively and sportive, are highly interesting. I allude to the marine Entomostraca, or insects with shells, and particularly to those of the genus Cythere, scarcely any of which exceed in diameter a large pin’s head, and most of them are not equal to that of a small one. Imagine a pair of bivalve shells of this size, irregularly oval, or kidney-shaped, from which, slightly separated, protrude four pairs of little curved claws or feet, most delicately fringed, and kept in constant motion ; and from one end a pair of jointed antennae. Mr. Baird, who has attentively studied their manners, gives the following pleasing account of them: “These insects are only to be found in sea-water, and may be met with in all the little pools amongst the rocks on the sea shores. They live amongst the Fuci and Conferva, &c., which are to be found in such pools ; and the naturalist may especially find them in abundance in those beautiful clear little round wells which are so often c