282 COMMON OBJECTS OF THE SHOEE. 



when first hatched, are covered with a minute 

 shell, which they enlarge as they grow older. The 

 ball is often as large as an orange, and contains 

 a great number of these egg-cases. One of an 

 ordinary size was found by the author to consist 

 of as many as two thousand five hundred. This 

 mass of eggs is called on the coast bladder-chain, 

 oyster-spat, sea-rose, or soap-ball or wash-ball. 

 Ellis says of it, that in his time, sailors used it as 

 soap, to wash their hands. 



Our engraving will at once remind all accus- 

 tomed to the sea-side, of another object on which 



they have often looked; at which, perchance, in 

 childhood, they have wondered much, doubting 

 whether that olive-green leathery bag were not 

 some kind of sea- weed. The Mermaid' s-purse, or 

 the Fairy-purse, was the name by which they 

 called it in those days ; and it is the egg-case of 

 some of the several kinds of Ray-fish, or skate. It 

 is open at both ends to admit the sea-water, and 

 if we pick up any of the specimens so numerous 

 during the months of September or October, we 



