328 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 



CHAP. XVI. 



ECHINODEB.MATA. 



STAR-FISHES, SEA-URCHINS, AND SEA-CUCUMBERS. 



The Star-Fishes — Their Feet or Suckers. — Voracity of the Asterias. — The Rosj 

 Feather-Star. — Brittle and Sand-Stars. — The real Sea-Stars of the British Waters. 

 — The Sea-Urchins. — The Pedicellariae. — The Shell and the Dental Apparatus 

 of the Sea-Urchin. — The Sea-Cucumbers — Their strange Dismemberments. — 

 Trepang-fishing on the Coast of North Australia. — In the Feejee Islands. 



" As there are stars in the sky, so are there stars in the sea," is 

 the poetical exordium of Link's treatise on Star-fishes, the first 

 ever published on the subject ; and James Montgomery tells us in 

 rather bombastic style, that the seas are strewn with the images 

 of the constellations with which the heavens are thronged. 



This is no doubt highly complimentary to the star-fishes, but 

 is far from being merited by any particularly shining or radiant 

 quality ; as they occupy a very inferior grade among the deni- 

 zens of the sea, and merely owe their stellar name to their form,, 

 which somewhat resembles the popular notion of a star. 



But if they are of an inferior rank to most marine animals; 

 if even the stupid oyster boasts of a heart, which they do not 

 possess ; yet a closer inspection of their organisation shows us 

 many wonderful peculiarities, and proves to us once more that 

 nature has impressed the stamp of perfection as well upon her 

 lowest and most simple creations, as upon those beings that rank 

 highest in the scale of life. 



Every one knows the common Star-fish, with its lanceolate 

 arms ; its generally orange-coloured back, thickly set with tu- 

 bercles, and the pale under-surface, with its rows of feet, feelers, 

 or suckers, which serve both for locomotion and the seizure of 

 food. 



When one of these creatures is placed on its back, in a plate 

 filled with sea-water, it is exceedingly curious to watch the- 

 activity which those numberless sucking feet display. At first 



