56 INLAND FISHERIES. 



set Jibove liigli water are comparatively safe, for when the tide 

 leaves them uncovered they can endure for hours the direct heat 

 of the sun, which would kill the young- starfish in a few minutes. 



While the starfish are living upon the eel-grass and sea-weed 

 they are supplied with an abundance of food in the form of the 

 young of marine worms, snails, and other animals, which, like the 

 stars themselves, swim freely in the sea for a time, and then settle 

 down upon any object with which they happen to come in contact. 

 Throughout July the water at Kickemuit was teeming with minute 

 free-swimming creatures, and, in the aquarium, the growth of the 

 youngest stars could be greatly accelerated by feeding them the 

 contents of the tow-net. During the last four days of June in- 

 numerable larviB of a marine worm, Syllis (?), were swarming at 

 the surface, and on July 11th millions of the young of one of the 

 sea-snails, Littorina (?), were caught in the tow-nets. 



The clam, also, is one of those unfortunate animals Avhose larviie 

 set at about the same time as the starfish, and in the same places. 

 The starfish before they are three days old show a predilection 

 for young clams, which apparently does not diminish so long as 

 any clams remain. Fig. 3 was drawn from life last summer by Dr. 

 J. L. Kellogg, and represents a characteristic scene in the marine 

 tragedy. 



In order to ascertain how fast the stars of the average size 

 found upon the eel-grass Avould devour the young clams of aver- 

 age size, I placed one such star in a dish with fift^^-six clams taken 

 at random from the margin of a stone. The larger clams were 

 about the length of one arm of the star, and they ranged from 

 this length to one or two millimeters. The experiment was begun 

 at 1:22 P. M., ou July 18 ; at 5:40, P. M., two clams had been de- 

 voured, each about the length of the arm of the star, and during 

 the evening a third was eaten. At eight o'clock the following 

 morning five had been eaten ; at nine o'clock, six ; and, at 9:05, 

 the seventh clam had been attacked. I was absent from the labo- 

 ratory for the next four days, and returning on the 22d found, 

 at G, P. M., twenty-nine empty shells whose contents had been 



