122 THE HAUNTS OF LIFE 



important part of the body out of the treacher- 

 ous, smothering ooze. This is very well 

 illustrated by the sea-lilies or Crinoids, distant 

 relatives of star-fishes, which occur in great 

 beds like daffodils by the lake-side. Another 

 very good example is to be found in the 

 Umbellulas, near relatives of the sea-pens, 

 where the stalk is sometimes a yard long, and 

 bears at the top a pendent cluster of polyps, 

 often of a beautiful blue colour. 



As intelligible as the long stalks of many 

 sedentary animals are the long legs of many of 

 the wanderers. Some of the deep-sea prawns 

 are the lankiest animals in existence. Some 

 of the sea-spiders move about on long legs like 

 stilts. This is well suited for prowling about 

 on the surface of the abyssal ooze. 



Then there is the exquisite tactility of many. 

 In a world of darkness, where sight counts for 

 little, touch becomes the important sense. 

 Some of the deep-sea prawns have feelers 

 several times longer than their body. One 

 crustacean has antennae fully a yard long. The 

 deep-water fish called Lamprotoxus, captured 

 off the west coast of Ireland, has a barbule 

 several times its own length, and yet this long 

 probing feeler is just an exaggeration of the 



