. Ocean wonders: a companion for the seaside. ng and benumbing sensation, deadly to smallprey, the victim being affected as by a shock of I know by experience, for, some years ago, when inBermuda, while attempting to take a large actinia from arock, one of these soft-looking beauties gave me a shock ACTIXLE, SEA-AXEMOXES, OK SEA-FLOWERS. 13 which disabled my armfor hours. It will easily beunderstood that thisconcealed battery en-ables the sea - anem-ones to conquer muchlarger and strongercreatures than theycould hold simply bythe tentacles; theyoften seize largeshrimps, and cr
. Ocean wonders: a companion for the seaside. ng and benumbing sensation, deadly to smallprey, the victim being affected as by a shock of I know by experience, for, some years ago, when inBermuda, while attempting to take a large actinia from arock, one of these soft-looking beauties gave me a shock ACTIXLE, SEA-AXEMOXES, OK SEA-FLOWERS. 13 which disabled my armfor hours. It will easily beunderstood that thisconcealed battery en-ables the sea - anem-ones to conquer muchlarger and strongercreatures than theycould hold simply bythe tentacles; theyoften seize largeshrimps, and crabs farbeyond their own ,however,if one of these findsan anemone weakenedfrom any cause, it willtake up a positionupon the edge of itsmouth, keeping it dis-tended, and with itsclaws pluck out thefood from the victimssac and appropriate itto its own use. Some-times, when such anattempt is made, acombat ensues, andthen woe to the ma-rauder if he has mis-taken the strength ofthe sea-anemone! Hewill surely fall intohis own 14 THE OCEAN. Some of the sea-anemones are free-swimming organiza-tions, and all have some capacity for movement; bnt thehabit of most is to attach themselves to some firm object, asa rock or a section of coral, or to the back of a crab or otherCrustacea. In fact, when free they swim backward, andwherever their base encounters a firm object, no matterwhat, there they will fix themselves by suction, and as a gen-eral rule contentedly remain. There are two species, how-ever, which show a marked preference for the back of a crus-tacean. One is called the parasite anemone, and its favoritehome is on the hard shell of the hermit-crab (the Pagurus
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