A ''Living Fossil" 231 



Sometimes several will follow her. Then occurs a 

 strange procession. Each male hangs on to his fellow 

 in front while she leads the gang to a suitable spot 

 where, after scooping up the sand with her broad head, 

 she at once deposits her eggs. The males then coven 

 them with milt. Whereupon the party breaks up ; some 

 of the members return to the water, some await the 

 rising tide. The eggs are some of them later carried 

 about by the action of the waves, but the majority soon 

 settles into the sand, or in the interstices of the gravel 

 to undergo a short — or long, as the case may be — 

 period of incubation. 



It may appear from the foregoing incident that my 

 previous statement, concerning the probability of crude 

 vision in these creatures, is somewhat aside from the 

 evidence, that doubtful or imperfect ability to see is not 

 reflected in the facility with which they find their way 

 out of the water to a desirable breeding spot. Well, 

 then, here is my proof. The thing that first struck 

 me that they were practically insensible to surrounding 

 objects through the aid of vision was their utter in- 

 capacity to avoid any obstacle happening to be in their 

 way. In traveling over the surface of the bottom, 

 however well lighted, they would collide headlong with 

 stones and other prominent barriers in their path, and 

 only by repeated trial and effort did they chance to cir- 

 cumvent them and proceed in the general direction they 

 were bent. It was the same with the mating individuals 

 who came out of the water to spawn. I would stand 

 directly in the line of their approach, but they would 

 continue straight ahead, heedless of my existence, until 

 brought to a stop by coming into contact with my boots. 



