91 



house of the animal than the animal itself : here, however, 

 we have been describing the bone and its appendage^, 

 which are the covering of this animal. Linnaeus described 

 it as a bony covering ; and analysis, by that accurate che- 

 mist Mr. Hatchctt, has shown that Linnaeus was perfectly 

 right, seeing that shells are entirely destitute of phosphoric 

 acid, and bones have always a portion of it. The bones 

 of the mouth of this animal are a curious congeries within 

 this* case; the rest of the animal we know very little 

 about, and the little there is of it is eaten in some places 

 in Scotland and other parts. 



This Echinus was found by some fishermen in the 

 islands of Shetland, where it is known by the name of the 

 Piper, from the spines being supposed to resemble the 

 drones of a bagpipe. The fishermen there say that speci- 

 mens are sometimes found with spines nearly a foot in 

 length; but some allowance must be made for exaggeration 

 in all statements of this nature. The figure is nearly the 

 size and proportion of the specimen. 



Since writing the above I have seen a small specimen in 

 the possession of Mr. Lee, of Hammersmith, about an 

 inch and a quarter in diameter, of which the spines are 

 some twice that length, but imperfect, and some deeper 

 furrowed. Some parts being nearly destitute of spines, 

 we find the bone so nearly resembling our species, that 

 we consider them the same, as we could not see any 

 specific difierence. The spines seem to be longer in pro- 

 portion in this small specimen than in the larger one. From 

 their internal structure we should consider them as adapted 

 for growth, and in this they somewhat resemble the struc- 

 ture of the stems of some plants, having a kind of central 

 pith, and radiating in divaricating circles from it. We 



* The five teeth are generally elongated inwards, and are coir.pojed of 

 fiae silky filaments resembling asbestus, but are brittle. 



