46 Life and Timmortality. 
are somewhat irregularly arranged, and not rarcly one is 
stumpy through breakage or unequal development. 
When a Star-fish is alarmed, or finds itself in strange quar- 
ters, it will be seen to curl up the tips of its rays, and there 
under the point of each ray will be found a thick red spot 
seated on the extremity of a nerve, and having in it as many 
as from one hundred to two hundred crystal lenses sur- 
rounded by red cells. With such a highly-developed eye, 
which is far better than the jelly-fish enjoys, it is no wonder 
that the Star-fish is so quick in discerning food, or enrages 
the fisherman by the discovery of the bait which he had 
intended for other animals, for it turns out that this stupid- 
looking animal is more wide-awake than it is given credit 
for. Sometimes, as in the beautifully delicate Star-fish, called 
the “ Lingthorn,” a soft lid, or feeler, hangs over the eye-spot, 
which gives to the creature a curiously intelligent look, but 
in the case of our common form this lid is notably absent. 
From all that has been written it must be evident that our 
first walking animal is by no means a poor or feeble creature. 
He has a chain armor woven into his leathery skin, with 
sharp, pointed spines, and snapping, beak-like claws to pro- 
tect him; an excellent digestion and a capacious mouth 
to feed his greedy stomach, and a fine array of nerves, quick 
feeling and eyesight, and a wonderful apparatus for moving 
over the ground. When it is added to all these possessions 
the ability to close over the wound in the case of a lost ray 
and the growing of a new one, we see that his powers of 
living satisfactorily are by no means insignificant. But this 
curious walking apparatus of the Star-fish is far from being 
perfect in all his relations. They do not all walk by means 
of suckers any more than all sponge-animals build toilet 
sponge, or all slime-animals make chambered shells. Sure, 
the Rosy Feather-stars, for example, have no use for feet-tubes, 
as their lives are generally spent upon the rocks or nestled in 
bunches of sea-weed. Brittle-stars, as these are called, 
though closely related to the Star-fishes, are not easily 
