206 THE LOG OF THE SUN 



beginnings of the organs of sense), and a long- 

 drawn-out tail, would have their origin. 



Such a remarkable simile is not as fanciful as 

 it might at first appear; for although we know 

 of no blossom which so sets at naught the seden- 

 tary life of the vegetable kingdom, yet among cer- 

 tain of the animals which live their lives beneath 

 the waves of the sea a very similar thing occurs. 



Many miles inland, even on high mountains, we 

 may sometimes see thousands of little joints, or 

 bead-like forms, imbedded in great rocky cliffs. 

 They have been given the name of St. Cuthbert's 

 beads. Occasionally in the vicinity of these fos- 

 sils — for such they are — are found impressions 

 of a graceful, flower-like head, with many deli- 

 cately divided petals, fixed forever in the hard re- 

 lief of stone. The name of stone lilies has been 

 applied to them. The beads were once strung to- 

 gether in the form of a long stem, and at the top 

 the strangely beautiful animal-lily nodded its 

 head in the currents of some deep sea, which in 

 the long ago of the earth's age covered the land — 

 millions of years before the first man or beast 

 or bird drew breath. 



It was for a long time supposed that these won- 

 derful creatures were extinct, but dredges have 

 brought up from the dark depths of the sea actual 

 living stone lilies, or crinoids, this being their real 

 name. Few of us w T ill probably ever have an op- 

 portunity of studying a crinoid alive, although in 



