the fact justify the conclusion that the creature, in the moment
intervening between the detection of a present refuge in time of trouble
and its dignified retreat thereinto, calculates the possibility that the
unfamiliar habitation may be so narrow as to prevent the act of turning
round? Does this sea-snake match its wonderful nimbleness of body with an
equally wonderful nimbleness of brain? I do not presume to theorise on
such a conundrum of Nature, but mention an undoubted fact for others to
ponder.

One of the salt sea snakes is distinguished by its odd, deceptive
shape--a broad, flattened tail whence the body consistently diminishes
to the head, which is the thinnest part. Other aquatic snakes have
paddle-shaped tails.

Another singular denizen of the reef is a species of Acrozoanthus (?)--a
compound animal having a single body and several heads. The body is
contained in a perpendicular, parchment-like, splay-footed tube a foot
and a half or two feet long, whence the heads obtrude alternately as
buds along a growing branch. Many of the tubes are vacant--the skeletons
of the departed. From those which are occupied the heads appear as
bosses of polished malachite veined and fringed with dusky purple, and
yellow-centred.


SPAWN OF THE SEA


"The dewdrop slips into the shining sea."

So Edwin Arnold. Here is an observation illustrating the manner in which