76 GLIMPSES OF NATURE. 



family group. Away back in the mists of the ages, 

 sea-urchins lived in primitive seas, and left their fossils 

 to testify to the long descent of their race. Even 

 to-day the family group possesses certain queer mem- 

 bers which deep-sea dredging has brought to light. 

 In one of these rare sea-urchins, the shell, instead of 

 being rigid and brittle, has its plates flexible. 



When first my late friends, Dr. W. B. Carpenter 

 and Sir C. Wyville Thomson, saw this flexible urchin 

 heaving and panting on the deck of the Porcupine, 

 and finally collapsing as it were, the one remarked to 

 the other, " This looks as if you had sat on it." But 

 although these aberrant urchins are the rarities of 

 science, we still possess in the homely Echinus of our 

 own shallow seas a creature whose whole build and 

 history is nothing short of a natural romance. 



