Have you ever seen a “comb bearer” or as it is often called, a “marble bleb?” Probably you have though you may not know its name. Sometimes it occurs in rock pools, though more often it is found in one’s shrimping net and occasionally it is washed up by the tide, but it does not live long out of water. The “marble bleb,” as its name denotes, is an almost globular mass of soft, transparent jelly. It is practically colourless, with the exception of eight bright coloured bands which run from end to end of the animal. To the naked eye, this little denizen of the sea is of rare beauty: as an object for low-power microscopy it is entrancing. When magnified, the bright bands are seen to be composed of rows of flattened outgrowths. If our specimen is small enough to be examined in water, its real beauty can only be seen in this manner, we shall observe that the flattened outgrowths act like paddles, sometimes they work all together, sometimes independently of one another and this fact explains the marvellous evolutions of the “marble bleb” in water. Now it shoots forward in a straight line with some rapidity, now it rolls over and over and swims onward while doing so. In the sun, it displays glorious iridescent colouring. At the hinder end of the “bleb” we notice a pair of hollows: from these, as we watch it swim, we shall see it suddenly shoot out a pair of long feathery tendrils and they may be withdrawn into the hollows as suddenly. We must make a point of examining the “marble bleb,” it is one of the gems of our coasts. Superficially the common, sponge-like “Dead man’s toes” or, to give it its more pleasant title, “Mermaid’s fingers,” is a very drab affair. It is a dirty-brown lobed, spongy mass with a leathery skin; when removed from the water it loses all semblance of shape. In sea water, however, if we examine it carefully, we shall see that it is studded with beautiful little flower-like creatures, each one resembling a miniature Sea Anemone. Examined, in water, under a low power of our microscope we can see the water current flowing through the channels with which it is perforated, after the manner of a sponge. If, now, we take a dead specimen and cut it up, placing a small portion on a slide and shredding it with a pair of needles, we shall find, when we magnify the result of our work, that there are a number of minute mineral spikes, called spicules, and very beautiful objects they make for the microscope. There are many sea-side creatures, which we may find, closely related to “Mermaid’s fingers,” they may all be treated in the same way for they will all yield spicules which will repay us for our trouble. All these spongy organisms are not provided with spicules as ornaments, though one might be forgiven for thinking so, seeing how decorative many of them are. Their presence is necessary to strengthen the spongy material.