27G EVENINGS AT THE MICROSCOPE. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



SEA-URCHINS AND SEA-CUCCMBERS. 



Peering about among the rocks to-day at low-tide, Z 

 found, on turning over a large stone, an object which; 

 though familiar enough to those who are conversant with 

 the sea and its treasures, would surprise a curious ob- 

 server fresh from the fields of Warwickshire. It is a ball, 

 perfectly circular, and nearly globular, — only that its 

 under part is a little flattened, — hard and shelly in its ex- 

 terior, which is, however, densely clothed with a forest of 

 shelly spines, each one of which has a limited amount of 

 mobility on its own base. On attempting to remove it, I 

 find that it adheres to the stone with some firmness ; and 

 that, on the exercise of sufficient force, it comes away with 

 a feeling as if something were torn, and I find that a mul- 

 titude of little fleshy points are left on the stone. Having 

 dropped my prize into a glass collecting-jar of sea-water, 

 I presently see that it is slowly marching up the side, 

 sprawling out on every side a multitude of transparent 

 hands, with which it seems to feel its way, and which are 

 evidently feet also, for on these it crawls along at its own 

 tortoise-pace. And I now see that it is the knobbed ends 

 of some of these feet which were torn away by my forcible 

 act of ejectment, and left clinging to the stone. 



It was not the first time that I had seen the Sea-urchin 

 (Echinus miliaris) ; and I might have passed it by with 

 a feeling of satiated curiosity, had I not recollected our 

 evening's amusement. Oh, ho ! said I, what a fund of 

 microscopic entertainment is inclosed in this stone box ! 



