Armoured Myriads and Monsters 



and even to travel, though in most cases with 

 extreme deliberation. Both can put out little 

 tube-feet suckers, by means of which they can 

 change their position, and can even slowly right 

 themselves, when turned the wrong way up. 



Sometimes the sea-urchin uses its sharp spines 

 as an additional means of getting along. And 

 while the common starfish can seldom advance 

 faster than at a rate of about one half-inch per 

 minute, there is a species which flings itself 

 forward in a more reckless and rapid style, by 

 using its rays as limbs. 



Starfish and sea-urchin are alike protected 

 by an armour of hard litde plates, arranged in 

 neat rows upon the skin. Not plates made in a 

 workshop, and purchased by the owner for its 

 use, but unknowingly secreted by the animal 

 itself; formed, like Foraminifera shells, from 

 lime drawn out of the water. 



Between these plates are tiny openings ; and 

 through those openings are put out the minute 

 tube-feet. Even in armour made by skilled 

 workmen for human beings, joints have always 

 been necessary ; and we know from history how 

 many a gallant fighter in past centuries was slain 

 by an arrow piercing where a joint allowed it to 

 enter. 



p 209 



