THE COMATULA 171 



These are but a few of the treasures that may 

 be studied with interest and advantage. It will be 

 advisable to take them home in a good supply of 

 sea water, to allow them a quiet time, and to avoid 

 all shaking. These small things of Nature are very 

 particular, and will not divulge much of their beauty 

 or give much information to careless or trivial people. 



Suppose we take one of these objects for the 

 present, and follow out some of its characteristic 

 features. We select the rosy feather star, because 

 it is a representative of the ancient lily encrinites, a 

 tribe of lovely creatures that in the remote past held 

 an important place on the floors of oceans. The 

 central disc of this creature is about the size of a pea. 

 It has ten arms, which it can move at will with a 

 grace that surpasses any exercise movement ever 

 performed by an athlete. In some specimens, these 

 arms are about an inch and a half long, and are 

 united in pairs, each pair branching from a short 

 common stalk. They are made up of a large num- 

 ber of joints covered with transparent crystalline 

 flesh. Its ten arms have thirty or forty pinnules 

 down each side, so that the arms very much resemble 

 living feathers, hence its name. 



The thin transparent flesh which covers every 

 part of the creature is covered with innumerable 

 cilia so closely arranged that the whole appears 

 like living rose-coloured velvet, in which the pile 

 is in constant vibration. A groove runs down each 

 armlet, meeting a larger central groove which extends 



