SEA URCHINS, LIFE IN THE ROOK. 223 
two to four inches in diameter, which bristles with long, black, 
needle-like spines. When these spines are removed it is seen to 
be a shel}-fish, round but flat like a large biscuit, very prettily 
shaped and marked. The negroes daily bring these shells to the 
court of the hotel and sell them to visitors under the name of 
“ sea eggs.”* d 
These curiously armed shell-fish appear to perform police duty, 
and their sharp spines often cause the colored intruder discom- 
fited to retire. One of our divers was made quite lame by one 
of these creatures, the broken spine in his foot irritating and in- 
flaming the flesh, and requiring for its proper removal the in- 
struments and skill of the surgeon. 
The barbs with which the spines are covered, are like so many 
minute fish hooks; they readily admit the entrance of the spines 
into the flesh of man or fish, but prevent their removal; so that 
as an enemy, although small, they are somewhat formidable. 
In consulting the works that have been occasionally published 
concerning the Bahamas, we have been astonished at finding in 
them so little in regard to the great clearness and brilliant hues 
of the water, and the strange and exquisitely beautiful sub-aque- 
ous world which the water glass reveals. Catesby appears to 
have seen and described. more than most, if not all, the authors 
who have succeeded him. 
There was occasionally brought to us by the divers specimens 
of corals and gorgonias with some of the soft coraline rock to 
which they adhered, and to which they seemed rooted, and we 
were surprised to see that these fragments of the rocky floor of 
the sea gardens abounded with worms and other forms of life. 
Mr. Phelps states that he broke a large piece of this rock into 
small fragments, and found in it a number of small crabs, two 
or three small star fishes, three or more shrimps, three worms 
organized like a centiped, and some monopod worms. He be- 
