3892 The Zoologist — March, 1874. 



and the round, soft bodies of these star-fishes hung from them like plump 

 ripe fruit. The sea-peus were resplendent with a pale lilac phosphorescence, 

 like the flame of cyanogen gas ; not scintillating like the green light of 

 Ophiacantha, but almost constant, sometimes flashing out at one point more 

 brightly, and then dying gradually into comparative dimness, but always 

 sufficiently bright to make every portion of a stem caught in the tangles or 

 sticking to the ropes distinctly visible." — P. 148. 



This general illumination of ocean life seems hitherto to have 

 been very much overlooked and wholly unexplained by voyagers; 

 the " phosphorescence of the sea" has always been noticed, but it 

 has been attributed to the presence of minute entomostracans, 

 specimens of which have been fished up in buckets, and then 

 fished out of the buckets to the great delectation of miscroscopists, 

 who discovered that they were living animals ; but here star-fishes 

 and the larger invertebrates all exhibited this marvellous property. 



Retracing her course towards Stornaway, the 'Porcupine' dredged 

 in lat. 59° 26' with a depth of seven hundred fathoms. The haul 

 was not a rich one, but one of the captives, a contractile sea- 

 urchin proved a great prize. 



" As the dredge was coming in we obtained a glimpse of a large scarlet 

 urchin iu the bag. We thought it was one of the highly-coloured forms of 

 Echinus Flemingii, of unusual size ; and as it was blowing fresh, and there 

 was some little difiiculty in getting the dredge capsized, we gave little heed 

 to what appeared an inevitable necessity, that it should be crushed to pieces. 

 We were somewhat surprised, therefore, when it rolled out of the bag un- 

 injured ; and our surprise increased, and was certainly in my case mingled 

 with a certain amount of nervousness, when it settled down in the form of a 

 round red cake, and began to pant — a line of conduct, to say the least of it, 

 very unusual in its rigid, undemonstrative order ; yet there it was with all 

 the ordinary characters of a sea urchin — its intcr-ambulacral areas, and its 

 ambulacral areas with three rows of tube feet, its spines, and five sharp blue 

 teeth ; and curious undulations were passing through its perfectly flexible, 

 leather-like test. I had to summon up some resolution before taking the 

 weird monster in my hand, and congratulating myself on the most inte- 

 resting addition to my favourite family that has been made for many a 

 day."— P. 150. 



1 can readily imagine the nervousness of our author at witnessing 

 this extraordinary spectacle. Of all animals in creation the sea- 

 urchins appear most immovably fixed in their plate-armour. In 

 previously described recent urchins this is invariably the case, but 



