SOME CREEPING THINGS. 127 



Can we keep this creature when it is dead? 



Only by putting it in some preserving fluid, 

 like alcohol, for all of its parts are soft, and it has 

 no shell. If you wish to preserve the sea-urchin's 

 shell, you can either take out the mouth parts 

 and thoroughly clean the inside, and then dry 

 the shell with the spines on, or you can boil the 

 whole shell in water and rub off the spines with 

 an old brush. But what has Pauline? 



It is a little starfish with five arms; but how 

 fast they move. 



No; it is not a starfish, but a Brittle-star, 

 though the two are quite nearly related. See; it 

 has a hard, round body, like a button, with a little 

 mouth in the center; and these five arms are not 

 parts of the body, as in the starfish, but are more 

 like little whips, by which it gathers in its food. 

 If you disturb it, some of these little arms are 

 very apt to break off, and so the creature is called 

 a brittle-star. 



The brittle-stars which live around the beach 

 do not grow very large, but there are many very 

 strange and large ones which live on the bottom 

 of the ocean, in very deep water. You can often 

 find small ones by turning up stones when the 

 tide is low; for they do not live on the tops and 

 sides of rocks, like the true starfishes. There is 



