FIXED LUMINARIES OF THE SEA. 19 



CHAPTER III. 



FIXED LUMINARIES OF THE SEA. 



WE have examined and admired the movable and the 

 moving luminaries of the ocean world, in the firma- 

 ment of the deep, we may call it, slowly moving stars of 

 extreme minuteness, but great brilliancy, in one group, and 

 the large orbs, more or less moving in erratic spheres, trail- 

 ing in long lines of coruscating light, representing the lowest 

 grand branches of the animal kingdom, the protozoans, and 

 the vast colony of the sea-jellies, or medusce. 



We now come to the third chapter, which embraces those 

 animals forming the grand branch of the animal kingdom 

 which included in Cuvier's time the radiated animals. 



All who have visited the New-England shores, or those be- 

 yond, farther north, or the warmer waters of our semi-tropical 

 regions, have probably become acquainted with the soft and 

 leathery forms, which, when seen undisturbed in the water, 

 appear like flowers. For example, should we visit the de- 

 lightful beaches and coves of Lynn, or Nahant, or Swamp- 

 scott, the loved hunting-grounds of Agassiz and his disciples, 

 we would see, on well-advised instruction from some one 

 informed, what at first would suggest a moss pink in full 

 bloom, nestled perhaps in groups, in crevice or open pool, 

 among the crags or broken boulders. These are the com 



