ON STAEFISHES AND ANNELIDS. 13 



The whole sub-kingdom of the Coelenterates, therefore, is 

 conspicuous in the pelagic wealth of the sea in every clime, 

 and is a vast and never-failing supply of food to many higher 

 forms, while they (i.e. the Coelenterates) in turn occasionally 

 levy a tax on animals as high in the scale as fishes. 



For hundreds of years fishermen of various kinds have 

 waged a war of extermination against the common cross-fish 

 or starfish, a form which lives on the bottom, but, like many 

 other marine animals, has free-swimming larvse (bipinnarians 

 and brachiolarians) which occur in countless swarms during the 

 warm months. Notwithstanding the constant slaughter by 

 liners, mussel-, clam- and oyster- fishermen this species does not 

 seem to be less abundant than it was centuries ago, or within 

 the memory of the oldest inhabitant. While man's pursuit is 

 not stimulated by the value of the starfish in the market or its 

 use as food, yet the injuries it inflicts on the liner by removing 

 his bait, or rendering the fishes unsightly when hooked, and its 

 ravages on oyster-, clam- and mussel-beds suffice to render the 

 annual destruction by man noteworthy, without taking into 

 .consideration the loss by storms or by other starfishes (Solaster). 

 Though limited areas in shallow w^ater or the tidal regions may 

 be more or less freed from their attacks by constant care, yet 

 taken broadly man has little effect either on their general 

 increase or diminution. Their enormous numbers on certain 

 fishing grounds, on which under favourable circumstances they 

 may be seen closely covering hundreds of square yards of the 

 bottom, besides spreading into deeper waters where they are 

 less visible, is sufficient proof that to-day they are no less 

 numerous than formerly. The old plan of tearing them across 

 the body before returning them to the water only helped to 

 increase their numbers, for each portion of the disc was re- 

 generated and became a complete five-rayed starfish. The 

 expensive measure of collecting them by hand or by other 

 means on oyster- and mussel-beds and placing them on land to 

 dry in the sun is only partially successful, since gulls often 

 carry them back to sea before life is extinct. 



The destructive agencies of man have not affected the other 

 members of the starfish-group (Echinoderms) to any appreciable 



