262 



LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC. 



Fig. 64. 



cavities or pockets, the depth of which is nearly 

 equal to the length of the slit that forms the 

 surface. 



This structure is shown in 

 Figs. 63 and 64, the former 

 representing the under surface 

 of one of the toes of the natural 

 size, and the latter a toe dis- 

 sected and highly magnified, 

 to show the appearance of the 

 cavities in its under surface, 

 their fringed edge, the depth 

 of the cavities, and the small 

 muscles by which they are 

 drawn open. The edge of the 

 pockets or cavities is composed 

 of rows of a beautiful fringe 

 which are applied to the sur- 

 face on which the animal 

 walks against gravity, while the 

 pockets themselves are pulled 

 up by the muscles attached to 

 them, so as to form the cavities into suckers. 



This structure Sir Everard Home found to 

 bear a considerable resemblance to that portion 

 of the head of the Echineis Remora, or sucking- 

 fish, by which it attaches itself to the shark, or 

 1he bottoms of ships. This apparatus is shown 

 in Fig. 65 : it is an oval form, and is surrounded 

 by a broad loose moveable edge, capable of apply- 

 ing itself closely to the surface on which it is set. 

 It consists of two rows of cartilaginous plates 

 connected by one edge to the surface on which 

 they are placed, the other, on the external edge, 

 being serrated like that in the cavities of the. feet 



