46 Life and Immortality. 



are somewhat irregularly arranged, and not rarely one is 

 stumpy through breakage or unequal development. 



When a Star-fish is alarmed, or finds itself in strange quar- 

 ters, it will be seen to curl up the tips of its rays, and there 

 under the point of each ray will be found a thick red spot 

 seated on the extremity of a nerve, and having in it as many 

 as from one hundred to two hundred crystal lenses sur- 

 rounded by red cells. With such a highly-developed eye, 

 which is far better than the jelly-fish enjoys, it is no wonder 

 that the Star-fish is so quick in discerning food, or enrages 

 the fisherman by the discovery of the bait which he had 

 intended for other animals, for it turns out that this stupid- 

 looking animal is more wide-awake than it is given credit 

 for. Sometimes, as in the beautifully delicate Star-fish, called 

 the " Lingthorn," a soft lid, or feeler, hangs over the eye-spot, 

 which gives to the creature a curiously intelligent look, but 

 in the case of our common form this lid is notably absent. 



From all that has been written it must be evident that our 

 first walking animal is by no means a poor or feeble creature. 

 He has a chain armor woven into his leathery skin, with 

 sharp, pointed spines, and snapping, beak-like claws to pro- 

 tect him; an excellent digestion and a capacious mouth 

 to feed his greedy stomach, and a fine array of nerves, quick 

 feeling and eyesight, and a wonderful apparatus for moving 

 over the ground. When it is added to all these possessions 

 the ability to close over the wound in the case of a lost ray 

 and the growing of a new one, we see that his powers of 

 living satisfactorily are by no means insignificant. But this 

 curious walking apparatus of the Star-fish is far from being 

 perfect in all his relations. They do not all walk by means 

 of suckers any more than all sponge-animals build toilet 

 sponge, or all slime-animals make chambered shells. Sure, 

 the Rosy Feather-stars, for example, have no use for feet-tubes, 

 as their lives are generally spent upon the rocks or nestled in 

 bunches of sea-weed. Brittle-stars, as these are called, 

 though closely related to the Star-fishes, are not easily 



