44 Life and Immortality. 



The Star-fish, not unlike all other animals of the sea, has 

 an appetite that is never satisfied: Dinner is always welcome. 

 The procurement of food seems its chief concern in life. It 

 is a scavenger of no mean importance, keeping up an inces- 

 sant chase after all kinds of dead animal matter, and thus 

 largely contributing, it is probable, towards the maintaining 

 of the waters of the ocean in a state of purity. But its 

 feeding is not exclusively restricted to decaying matters. 

 Any species of mollusk, from the humble whelk, not more 

 than five-eighths of an inch in length, to the lordly oyster, 

 so esteemed by epicures, constitutes a dainty tidbit. No more 

 inveterate ravager and brigand, not even excepting man 

 himself, have the oyster-beds to disturb the equanimity and 

 serenity of their existence than the audacious, insinuating 

 Star-fish. 



With its five arms, and apparently without any other 

 organ, this comparatively insignificant little being accom- 

 plishes a work which man, without the aid of extraneous 

 appliances, is quiet unable to execute. It opens an oyster 

 as deftly and effectually as an expert oysterman would do, 

 and that, too, without the habitual oyster-knife, and swallows 

 the slimy bivalve in the same manner as the lords of creation 

 do. Man, with all his genius and skill, were he deprived of all 

 other means of subsistence than the oyster, and having no 

 implement with which to open it, would be severely puzzled 

 to get at the savory morsel shut up in its obstinate valves, 

 yet the Star-fish performs the task seemingly without the 

 least difficulty. 



How the Star-fish manages the problem was at first a mat- 

 ter of guess-work. For a long time it was confidently 

 believed that the animal waited for the moment when the 

 oyster opened its shell to introduce one of its arms into 

 the opening. This much gained, the other four arms were 

 got in without much trouble, and the whole business ended 

 with the devouring of the inmate. This belief is no longer 

 tenable. Careful observation has revealed to us the true 



