280 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



the belly and under part of the animal. In the centre are 

 observed some hollow rings, which it is supposed consti- 

 tutes the mouth, since they are furnished with pores through 

 which the creature receives its nourishment in the water. 

 To the under part of the five rays are affixed a great 

 number of legs, so disposed that by their help the creature 

 contrives to walk, although very slowly. In the space be- 

 tween is a black thick skin, covering the back or upper part 

 of the body, which is divided by ribs, from the centre of 

 which grow out five double or ten single arms or rays, of a 

 yellow or reddish colour, and ranged two and two. The 

 rays are subdivided into two parts, and each of these into 

 two other branches, which successively become in propor- 

 tion smaller and more numerous, until the ray terminates in 

 an infinite number of small ramifications. All the branches 

 beginning from the body were, in the animal represented 

 in the engraving, about a foot and a half long, and the 

 animal measured upwards of three feet in diameter. The 

 body and all the rays, even to the extremity, are composed 

 of hard cartilaginous vertebrae, resembling a star or disk, 

 and are furnished with a prickle. It is to be remarked that 

 every ray ultimately disparts itself into 512 extremities; the 

 five rays therefore altogether are separated into 2560. 

 Now, every branch, having 512 extremities, is composed 

 of 1023 joints ; the five rays therefore consist of 5115. As 

 every ray contains upon an average six vertebras, there are 

 altogether no less than 81,840 cartilaginous vertebrae ; when 

 therefore one of these creatures comes to its full and perfect 

 growth, the joints, extremities, and vertebras, produce a 

 number almost incapable of being counted. As the ancients 

 believed this creature to be a vegetable, doubtless they sup- 

 posed that it absorbed its nourishment by pores, similar to 

 the flowers that grow in water. But Linnaeus and all 

 modern zoologists find its mouth very distinctly in the centre, 

 where five valves are united in a point. All the claws and 

 joints are movable, and lie extended in the water, thus 



