would itself have told a story. From it alone could 

 have been deduced the age of the hidden inhabi- 

 tant. Certainly no living creature likely to attach 

 itself on this half-imbedded base could have sur- 

 vived exposure throughout the winter months. 

 Therefore, whatever the form of life may be that 

 sought this stony sanctuary, it must, perforce, have 

 found it after these frozen reaches were tempered 

 by the vernal sun. Had this attachment been a 

 shell or other scurfy fragment, the inference might 

 have been otherwise; but the violence of wind and 

 waves would have been insufficient to cast up a 

 stone like this. 



The door to this dwelling was closed by a plug, 

 or operculum, which was part of the flower-like 

 structure, a region really forming the gills. The 

 reappearance of the creature's coronal branchiae 

 was signalized by the cautious extrusion of this 

 operculum; and then it could be seen that this 

 curious organ was placed at the end of a pedicel, 

 or stem; it was fashioned somewhat like a funnel, 

 the outside being longitudinally striated and the 

 rim, or edge, fringed with sharp violet-colored 

 points; from the middle another shorter funnel 

 arose which also was bordered with points, but 



[158] 



