o renew or change the sea-water, but
only to add a very little fresh water from the brook, now and then, as
the other evaporated. I therefore concluded that if I had been suddenly
conveyed, along with my tank, into some region where there was no salt
sea at all, my little sea and my sea-fish would have continued to thrive
and to prosper notwithstanding. This made me greatly to desire that
those people in the world who live far inland might know of my wonderful
tank, and by having materials like to those of which it was made
conveyed to them, thus be enabled to watch the habits of those most
mysterious animals that reside in the sea, and examine with their own
eyes the wonders of the great deep.

For many days after this, while Peterkin and Jack were busily employed
in building a little boat out of the curious natural planks of the
chestnut-tree, I spent much of my time in examining with the
burning-glass the marvellous operations that were constantly going on in
my tank. Here I saw those anemones which cling, like little red,
yellow, and green blobs of jelly, to the rocks, put forth, as it were, a
multitude of arms and wait till little fish or other small animalcules
unwarily touched them, when they would instantly seize them, fold arm
after arm round their victims, and so engulf them in their stomachs.
Here I saw the ceaseless working of those little coral insects whose
efforts have encrusted the islands of the Pacific with vast rocks, and
surrounded them with enormous reefs; and I observed that many of these
insects, though extremely minute, were very beautiful, coming out of
their holes in a circle of fine threads, and having the form of a
shuttlecock. Here I saw curious little barnacles opening a hole in
their backs and constantly putting out a thin, feathery hand, with
which, I doubt not, they dragged their food into their mouths. Here,
also, I saw those crabs which have shells only on the front of their
bodies, but no shell whatever on their remarkably tender tails, so that,
in order to find a protection to them, they thrust them into the empty
shells of whelks, or some such fish, and when they grow too big for one,
change into another. But, most curious of all, I saw an animal which
had the wonderful power, when it became ill, of casting its stomach and
its teeth away from it, and getting an entirely new set in the course of
a few months! All this I saw, and a great deal more, by means of my
tank and my bu