286 The New Star-fish. [CHAP. XVI. 
hundred of them, which they had gathered up where the 
fishermen clean their lines. I remember being particularly 
struck with the numerous and brilliant colors displayed by 
the cargo, exhibiting, as they did, all those tints—perhaps 
more than it is possible to name—from the brightest scarlet 
down to the deepest black, scarcely two being alike. Their 
disks, too, were remarkably varied ; some were of a perfect 
oval, while others were pentangular; some were flat, while 
others were, in a measure, pyramidal, and what, in truth, 
may be termed triangular in form.” 
Of all his daughters, Maggie seems to have been the 
most helpful. She went down to Gardenstown to obtain 
the refuse from the fishermen’s lines, to collect fish, crusta- 
cea, and such-like, and send them home to her father by the 
carrier. She sometimes accompanied him along the coast 
as far as Fraserburgh and Peterhead. One evening, while 
Edward was partaking of his evening meal, Maggie entered, 
and accosted him joyfully, “ Father, I’ve got a new star- 
fish ? ye, wi’ sax legs!” “I hope so, Maggie,” he answer- 
ed, “but I doubt it.” After he had finished his supper, he 
said, “ Now, Maggie, let’s see this prodigy of yours.” After 
looking at it, “Just as I thought, Maggie,” said he; “‘it’s 
not a new species—it’s only an Ophiocoma Ballit, but rather 
a peculiar one in its way, having, as you said, ‘sax legs’ in- 
stead of five.” 
Of the rosy-feather star (Camatula roseacea)—which Ed- 
ward had long been searching for, and at last found—he 
says: “ What a pretty creature! but how brittle! and oh, 
how beautiful! Does any one wonder, as I used to do, 
when he hears of a stone-lily or of a lily-star, as applied to 
this genus? Then let him get a sight of a crenard-star, and 
sure I am that his surprise will give place to admiration. 
And how curious! It was once supposed to have been the 
*most numerous of the ocean’s inhabitants,’ whereas now 
there are only about a dozen kinds to be found alive—one 
only in the British seas, and that but rarely met with. 
