162 GLAUCUS; OR, 
entwining their long spine-clad arms in a seemingly 
inextricable confusion of “kaleidoscope” patterns 
(thanks to Mr. Gosse for the one right epithet), purple 
and azure, fawn, brown, green, grey, white and crim- 
son; as if a whole bed of China-asters should have 
first come to life, and then gone mad, and fallen to 
fighting. But pick out, one by one, specimens from 
the tangled mass, and you will agree that no China- 
aster is so fair as this living stone-flower of the deep, 
with its daisy-like.disc, and fine long prickly arms, 
which never cease their graceful serpentine motion, and 
its colours hardly alike in any two specimens. Handle 
them not, meanwhile, too roughly, lest, whether in 
modesty or in anger, they begin a desperate course 
of gradual suicide, and, breaking off arm after arm 
piecemeal, fling them indignantly at their tormentor. 
Along with these you will certainly obtain a few of 
that fine bivalve, the great Scallop, which you have 
seen lying on every fishmonger’s counter in Hastings. 
Of these you must pick out those which seem dirtiest 
and most overgrown with parasites, and place them 
carefully in a jar of salt water, where they may not 
