COMMON OBJECTS OF THE SHORE. 303 



bucket of cold fresh water, to which article star- 

 fishes have a great antipathy. As I expected, a 

 Luidia caine up in the dredge, a most gorgeous 

 specimen. As it does not generally break up 

 before it is raised above the surface of the sea, 

 cautiously and anxiously I sank my bucket to a 

 level with the dredge's mouth, and proceeded in 

 the most gentle manner to introduce Luidia to the 

 purer element. Whether the cold air was too much 

 for him, or the sight of the bucket too terrific, I 

 know not ; but in a moment he proceeded to dis- 

 solve his corporation, and at every mesh of the 

 dredge his fragments were seen escaping. In 

 despair I grasped at the largest, and brought up 

 the extremity of an arm, the spinous eyelid of 

 which opened and closed with something exceed- 

 ingly like a wink of derision." The red spots to 

 be seen at the end of every ray of many star-fishes, 

 surrounded by spines, have by some writers been 

 called eyes, and it is to this part of the animal 

 which the Professor alludes in the latter sentence. 

 Very nearly allied in structure to the star-fishes, 

 are those animals generally called sea-eggs, or sea-- 

 urchins , whose rounded shells are so often thrown 

 on the beach. All have seen some of the commoner 

 kinds lying among the rocks, or placed on the 

 chimney-pieces of houses near the sea, or deposited 

 in the museums of science ; while their fossil re- 

 mains, often perfect in form, are found in the flint 

 and chalk in abundance. These shells are covered 

 with tubercles, placed in regular rows all down 

 their globular surface, and to these tubercles, 

 during the life of the animal, were affixed jointed 

 spines. Minute differences exist in the form of 

 the spines in various species, but so regular and 



