of the ages; and it is recorded in the most enduring 

 of all books, for they are the solid stone of our 

 earth. So from an altered point of view I shall at- 

 tempt to bring into relief some features of that 

 background, without which the natural history of 

 the serpent-star cannot readily be appreciated or 

 understood. 



To begin with we will go back several million 

 years or so to that day when the first known 

 forms related to the present living ophiurans were 

 supposed to have thrived; but while stepping 

 backward, so to speak, let us linger for a moment 

 on the way in order to gather some material for a 

 better rendering of the picture. 



This finds us then some time in the year 1893; 

 thirty-five years from the time of this writing — 

 which is to say when I was eleven years old. In 

 that year a biological event occurred which, while 

 not rocking the rest of the scientific world with its 

 importance, was to one scientist, at least, a phe- 

 nomenon of the very first order; for during a cer- 

 tain night of that halcyon year — that immortal 

 year, which long later was to prove so profound in 

 its potentialities — a brood of sow-bugs was 

 born . . . 



[79] 



