206 THE LOG OF THE SUN 



beginnings of the organs of sense), and a long- 

 drawn-out tail, would have their origio. 



Such a remarkable simile is not as fanciful as 

 it might at first appear; for although we know; 

 of no blossom which so sets at naught the seden- 

 tary life of the vegetable kingdom, yet among cer- 

 tain of the animals which live their lives beneath 

 the waves of the sea a very similar thing occurs. 



Many miles inland, even on high mountains, we 

 may sometimes see thousands of little joints, or 

 bead-like forms, imbedded in great rocky cliffs. 

 They have been given the name of St. Cuthbert's 

 beads. Occasionally in the vicinity of these fos- 

 sils — for such they are — are found impressions 

 of a graceful, flower-like head, :with many deli- 

 cately divided petals, fixed forever in the hard re- 

 lief of stone. The name of stone lUies has been 

 applied to them. The beads were once strung to- 

 gether in the form of a long stem, and at the top 

 the strangely beautiful animal-lily nodded its 

 head in the currents of some deep sea, which in 

 the long ago of the earth's age covered the land^ — f 

 millions of years before the first man or beast 

 or bird drew breath. 



It was for a long time supposed that these won- 

 derful creatures were extinct, but dredges have 

 brought up from the dark depths of the sea actual 

 living stone lilies, or crinoids, this being their real 

 name. Few of us will probably ever have an op- 

 portunity of studying a crinoid alive, although in 



