HOLOTHURIA. 65 



None are converted to use. 



In that artificial condition — one so different from the natural state 

 wherein these animals are preserved^ few predominant features are to l)e 

 discovered. 



Such animals have no ojoportunity of shewing whether they have 

 any care of their young ; nor how they may go in quest of food, or of 

 even testifjdng their proper selection of the meagre variety presented to 

 them. Neither can we say how they protect themselves from those 

 ravenous animals, of which, like others, they unquestionably become the 

 prey. They are evidently dissatisfied with substances around them, as 

 unsuitable for their permanent establishment. Discrimination is clearly 

 exercised, first, in choosing those places not liable to disturbance for an 

 abode ; secondly, in selecting a position adapted for the sweep of their 

 arborescence, and for the free jet of the fountain from withm. Solidity 

 in the one case, unobstructed space in the other, must be determined for 

 the spot of adhesion. 



Perhaps the natural and most favourable abode of the Holothuria 

 fusus is in deep water. "Wliether it may attain large dimensions in that 

 which is shallow seems doubtful, although I have heard of specimens 

 found in the shallowest. Few naturalists, if any, seem to have had 

 many of the species, nor do any appear to have preserved them perma- 

 nently. To judge by the figures of all Holothuria3 that I have ever 

 seen represented, the specimens must have been injured, dead, or dying, 

 greatly enfeebled, or verging to decay, — a more convincing illustration of 

 the difficulties attending the study of the animal than can be offered by 

 any argument. Figure and fixture are the true indications of a healthy 

 condition. They cannot be mistaken. Every race of the animal creation 

 is peculiarly distinguished by position, attitude, and motion. 



In some places this species may be very abundant, in others rare, and 

 naturalists have certainly found it so. There can be no doubt that some 

 animals are actually rare, that their rarity becomes constantly greater and 

 greater, and that it has terminated in extu-pation. Yet, a creature of 

 our days, from which the progeny of a single season may amount to 

 five thousand, should not be rare. Most animals are very unequally dis- 



I 



