SEA-SCORPIONS. 25 



day lobsters, crabs, and shrimps, so welcome on the tables of both 

 rich and poor. Some naturalists say that their nearest relations 

 at the present day are the king-crabs inhabiting the China seas and 

 the east coast of North America; and there certainly are some 

 points of resemblance between them. Others say that they are 

 related to scorpions, and for this reason we call them Sea- 

 scorpions. (See Plate I.) 



The first feature we notice in these creatures is the way in 

 which their bodies and limbs are divided into rings or joints. 

 This fact tells us that they belong to that great division of animals 

 called " Articulates," of which crabs, lobsters, spiders, centipedes, 

 and insects are examples. The celebrated Linnaeus called them 

 all insects, because their bodies are in this way cut into divisions. 1 

 But this arrangement has since been abandoned. However, they 

 are all built upon this simple plan, their bodies being like a series 

 of rings, to which are attached paired appendages or limbs, also 

 composed of rings, some longer and some shorter. Now, there must 

 be something very fitting and appropriate in this arrangement, 

 for the creatures that are thus built up are far more numerous 

 than any other group of animals. They must be particularly well 

 qualified to fight the battle of life; for like a victorious army 

 they have taken the world by storm, and still remain in possession. 

 We find them everywhere in seas, rivers, and lakes; in fields 

 and forests ; in the soil, and in all sorts of nooks and crannies ; 

 in the air, and even upon or inside the bodies of other animals. 

 Some of them, such as ants, bees, and wasps, show an intelligence 

 that is simply marvellous, and have acquired social habits which 

 excite our admiration. 



Articulate animals are a very ancient race, as well as a flourish- 

 ing one, for the oldest rocks containing undoubted fossils namely, 

 certain slates found in Wales and the Lake District tell us of a 

 time when shallow seas swarmed with little articulate animals 

 known as trilobites. They were in appearance something like 

 1 Lat. in, into, and secta, cut. 



