180 TOILERS IN THE SEA. 



CHAPTER VI. 



SEA - FAN MAKERS. 



A MONGST the most common objects of the sea- 

 -tJL shore, all around our coasts, are those strange 

 looking, scarcely handsome, lumps of dingy, cold, 

 soft substance, known as " dead man's fingers," and 

 that is all which most people know, 'or care to know, 

 about them ; and yet we must make their better 

 acquaintance, because the structure of the living 

 animal will serve as a key to that of the far more 

 ornamental, but less common objects, called "sea 

 fans." The polyp-home, or polypidom, resembles a 

 compact sponge ; sometimes it is only a thin crust 

 of less than a quarter of an inch, but usually it rises 

 in conoid, or finger-like masses, of various sizes, and 

 are either simple or lobed. When it is simple the fisher- 

 men of the coast call it "cow's paps" (fig. 33), but 

 when divided into lobes, like fingers, it bears the name 

 of " dead man's toes," or " dead man's hands." The 

 outer skin is tough and leathery, studded all over 

 with star-like figures, which, if attentively examined, 

 are seen to be divided into eight rays, indicating the 

 number of the tentacles of the polyps, which issue 

 here. The body of the polype is, as it were, enclosed 



