VI. 



SOME COASTWISE HSIIBS. 



Amonq the odds and ends that the incoming 

 flood casts upon the beach are the peculiar pillow- 

 shaped objects with long-drawn-out corners which 

 are generally known under the name of 'sea- 

 purses.' Great is the discussion attending the 

 finding of one of these sea-purses, and many are 

 the conjectures regarding their true nature. The 

 specimens found on the sand are usually dry and 

 split in the purse portion, showing nothing within ; 



'SEA-PUH8K.' 



but when freshly drawn from the sea-weed to 

 which they were at one time firmly attached, they 

 contain each a solitary egg, or, if development has 

 proceeded sufiicicntly far, an embryo in place 

 of the egg. This embryo is the young of the 

 skate or ray, that common representative of the 

 shark tribe of fishes, whose broad fleshy masses, 

 with a grinning mouth on the under surfiice, are 

 120 



