TWO FOUNG NATURALISTS. 



be so on the first of April, but this is not the time of 

 year for such jokes. Moreover, if it be an animal, 

 show me its mouth." 



"Here it is," said Le'on, pointing out in the middle 

 of the flattened part of the urchin, a cavity closed by 

 five little pointed bones interlocked in one another. 

 " The jolly creature has good teeth, as you may see. 

 It has indeed in this an advantage over ourselves, for 

 its teeth, like those of the rodents, never wear out; or 

 rather, they grow up from the root just in proportion 

 as they wear away at the top." 



" And so they have no need for dentists. Wonder- 

 ful ! And yet their lot does not appear to me an 

 enviable one. To begin with, they cannot do much in 

 the way of making excursions, as they have neither 

 fins, nor legs, nor feet." 



" Completely wrong again ! Sea-urchins do have 

 legs and feet, not quite after the same fashion as our- 

 selves, certainly, for they have several hundred, dis- 

 tributed over all the surface of the body. On a 

 moderate-sized urchin 3,840 feet have been counted 

 by a patient naturalist, or rather, to use the scientific 

 term 3,840 ambulacral feet." * 



"Not more than that! But I sincerely pity the 

 creature, for if I may judge from myself, who possess 

 only a single pair, it must be impossible for it to 

 remain quiet a single minute anywhere." 



* The sea-urchins possess, moreover, " ambulacral brains.'' 



