154 THE DEPTHS OF THE SEA. [CHAP, i v. 



far short of a ton, and the distance it had to he 

 dragged through the water was not much less than a 

 mile. As was frequently the case when these great 

 loads came up, there were few of the higher animal 

 forms in the dredge. The tangles brought up, how- 

 ever, two or three specimens of a very handsome star- 

 fish, the type of a new genus. 



Zoroaster fulgens (Pig. 26) is a five-rayed star-fish, 

 250 mm. from tip to tip of the arms, which run close 

 up to the centre leaving a small disk not more than 

 20 mm. in diameter. There are four rows of sucking 

 feet in the ambulacral grooves, a character which 

 places the genus in the first division of the Asterida, 

 along with Aster acantliion. The arms are compressed 

 laterally, and run up to a central longitudinal ridge, 

 which bears a row of large pointed spines articulated 

 to 'a row of projecting knob-like ossicles. From this 

 ridge bands of ossicles curve downwards to the edge 

 of the ambulacral groove so close together and so 

 thick and solid that the arms are continuously and 

 strongly mailed over. The disk is paved with large 

 calcareous tubercles with articulated spines; the tuber- 

 cles and spines becoming larger towards the centre of 

 the disk. The whole surface of the body is covered 

 with long fine spines, with here and there a group 

 of pedicellarise on short soft stalks attached to the 

 tops of special spines, while a row of such spines 

 bearing large groups of pedicellariae runs along the 

 edges of the ambulacral grooves. When living, the 

 whole surface of the animal is covered with a 

 quantity of glairy mucus. The colour of the perisom 

 is a magnificent yellow scarlet, but it is very evan- 

 escent, fading immediately in spirit. This is a 



