ECHINID 279 
is considered, further, that in each series of ambulacral feet there 
exist not, less than roo, you will have a total of 4,000 visible 
appendages upon the body of an animal of very small dimensions. 
If it is considered, finally, that no shell exists more admirably sym- 
metrical, elegant, or more highly ornamental than the corona of the 
Fig. 113.—Echinus esculentus (Lamarck), natural size. 
sea-urchin, it will readily be admitted that Nature has been most 
prodigal in her gifts to one of the humblest beings in creation—a 
creature which passes its existence in crawling in obscurity at the 
bottom of the sea. What elegance of form, eternally hidden from 
the eyes of man, sleeps under the heavy mass of water; and yet 
man imagines that everything in Nature has been created for his use 
and for his glory ! 
