Generally speaking, the Terebella works only in the evening, but, if it be hastily deprived of its tube, it cannot help itself, and is perforce obliged to work while it can. It is worthy of remark that the Terebella, although, as a rule, it lives in a tube all its life, is capable of swimming with the usual serpentine motion of marine worms, and, when taken out of its tube, rushes about violently, and soon exhausts itself by its efforts. Along most of our rocky seashores may be seen vast quantities of a sort of hardened sand, penetrated with small tubes. On a closer examination this sand-mass is resolved into a congeries of tubes, matted and twisted together, and each being the habitation of a marine worm called the Sabella. This name is derived from a Latin word signifying sand, and is given to the worm in allusion to the material of which it makes its habitation. Like the Terebella, the Sabella uses its tentacles for the purpose of building the tubes, which are much stiffer than those of the Terebella. They are strong enough, indeed, to give the feet a firm hold while traversing the rocks, and this, is a matter of no small moment when the tide is coming in, and the shore has to be regained without loss of time. Then we have other marine worms, known as Triquetra and Serpula, which make tubes in a somewhat similar manner, but of very fine materials and very strong cement, so that the tube is nearly as hard as stone. Space would fail me if I were to enumerate these creatures at greater length, but enough has been said to show that man’s invention of subaquatic cement has been anticipated in Nature by the inhabitants both of salt and fresh water. * * * * * WE now come to the subject of Paint and Varnish. Putting aside their use as a means to increase the beauty of the object to which they are applied, we will view them in the light of preservatives, and acknowledge the truth of the old Dutch proverb, that “Paint costs nothing.” Certainly, when the wood to which it is applied is thoroughly dry from within, it not only costs nothing, but repays itself over and over again as a preservative of the wood, and a defence against moisture from without. The instances in which Paint is applied to wood are too numerous to be mentioned. Perhaps some of my readers may remember the case of the naval captain who, on taking command of his ship, was supplied, according to custom, with exactly half the amount of paint required for her. The invariable etiquette had been that the captain supplied the remaining half at his own cost. But the officer in question was not at all disposed to be “put upon,” and was a thorn in the sides of the “Naval Lords.”