The Aplysia, or Sea-Hare.
'The origin and the source of the smallest portion of the universe
overpowers our comprehension. How little can the acutest senses, the
profoundest judgment, the widest view, embrace! It is as nothing; it is
as less than nothing. We are capable of doing no more than surveying
the edifice and adoring the Architect.'
SIR J. DALYELL.
XXI.
At several parts of the Scottish coast, and especially at North
Berwick, may be found specimens of that curious gasteropod named the
Aplysia, or Sea-Hare, the _Lepus marinus_ of the ancients.
On visiting North Berwick during summer, I have been astonished to
discover, in almost every pool, from two to twenty of these creatures.
At rest, the Aplysia is not by any means inviting, but when in motion,
elevating and depressing the fleshy mantle that covers over the fringed
and lobed branchiæ, its appearance is exceedingly graceful.
Striding across a pool on the look-out for some Gobies, whose forms
darting beneath a large stone had not escaped my glance, I perceived
the water in the rocky basin gradually lose its crystal brightness, and
become changed to crimson. The Gobies were therefore allowed to rest
in peace, while I proceeded to investigate a phenomenon that, at the
moment, seemed somewhat singular.
A kind friend and brother zoologist, who happened to be near, called
attention to the fact that the crimson stream flowed thickest near
where my foot rested.
On closely examining the spot pointed out, and turning over some fronds
of Dulse, we came upon a small fleshy ball of a dark brown colour,
from which there still issued a fluid of vivid crimson hue. Having
placed this strange object in a bottle, I soon pronounced it to be an
Aplysia, with whose full-length portrait, as represented in books, I
had previously been made acquainted.
The power which this animal possesses, under irritation, of spurting
out a peculiar secretion, I also remembered to have seen mentioned by
several writers on natural history.
Although generally believed to be gentle and perfectly harmless, yet,
as Professor Forbes observes, few molluscs have had a worse character
than the Aplysiæ. From very ancient times they have been regarded with
horror and suspicion; and many writers on natural history, conversant
with them only through the silly stories of ignorant fishermen,
have combined to hold them up as objects of detestation. To touch
them, according to European prejudices, was sufficient to generate
disease in the foolhardy experimenter; while Asiatics, reversing
the consequences, maintained, perhaps with greater truth, that they
met with instantaneous death when handled by man. Physicians wrote
treatises on the effects of their poison, and discussed the remedies
best adapted to neutralize it. Conspirators brewed nauseous beverages
from their slimy bodies, and administered the potion confident of its
deadly powers. Every nation in the world on whose shores the poor
Sea-Hares crawled, accorded to them the attributes of ferocity and
malignant virulence, although there never appears to have been the
slightest foundation for a belief in their crimes.
A specimen of the Aplysia that I had in my tank deposited a stringy
coil of spawn, which closely resembled that of the Eolis, with the
exception that the eggs, instead of being white, were of a reddish
tint.