282 THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



this respect by Linnaeus, Fabricius, or other authors. It 

 certainly is by no means common on the coast of Norway 

 and Lapland, though it has been generally supposed to be 

 found in abundance there. Pontoppidan, speaking of the 

 krake or kraken, says : " it seems to be of that polypus kind 

 which is called by the Dutch ze Sonne, by Rondeletius and 

 Gesner, stella arborescens, i. e. a star which shoots its rays 

 into branches like those of trees ; according to the same 

 exact description, I gave it the name of Medusa's Head. A 

 very worthy person told me he had seen some of them of an 

 extraordinary bigness, and others have seen them four times 

 as large as the common size, splashing the water about with 

 their numerous branches or arms."* 



The gallant author of an interesting article in the United 

 Service Journal for July 1833, p. 331, respecting Captain 

 Ross's voyage to the Arctic Seas in 1818, states that one of 

 this species of Asterice was captured in consequence of its 

 clinging to a " deep sea-clam"\ that was sent down for the 

 purpose of sounding in 1000 fathoms (6000 feet) water, 

 near the south side entrance of Lancaster Sound. 



SPECIES II. 



ASTERIAS RUBENS COMMUNIS, 



OR THE 



COMMON STAR FISH. 



The whole substance of this animal appears like an assem- 

 blage of bones in the form of wedges, which in their size 

 and figure resemble small brushes, and are supposed to be 

 the young of the parent animal, every one of which as they 

 increase in bulk, and approach to maturity, fall off from the 



* Bishop Pontoppidan's Natural History of Norway. 



t This ingenious instrument was invented by Captain Ross, for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining- the nature of the earth, sand, small shells, &c, lying 

 at. the bottom of the vast abyss, and is a species of claw-forceps. 



