SEA-TJKCHINS AND SEA-CUCUMBEKS. 317 



CHAPTER XYI. 



SEA-TJKCHINS AND SEA-CUOUMBEES. 



Peering about among the rocks to-day at low-tide, I 

 found, on turning over a large stone, an object which, 

 though familiar enough to those who are conversant 

 with the sea and its treasures, jvould surprise a curious 

 observer fresh from the fields of Warwickshire. It is 

 a ball, perfectly circular, and nearly globular — only 

 that its under part is a little flattened — ^hard and shelly 

 in its exterior, which is however densely clothed with 

 a forest of shelly spines, each one of which has a limit- 

 ed amount of mobility on its base. On attempting to 

 remove it, I find that it adheres to the stone with some 

 firmness, and that on the exercise of sufiicient force, it 

 comes away with a feeling as if something were torn, 

 and I find that a multitude of little fleshy points are 

 left on the stone. Having dropped my prize into a 

 glass collecting-jar of sea-water, I presently see that it 

 is slowly marching iip the side, sprawling out on every 

 side a multitude of transparent hands, with which it 

 seems to feel its way, and which are evidently feet 

 also, for on these it crawls along at its own tortoise- 

 pace. And I now see that it is the knobbed ends of 

 some of these feet which were torn away by my forci- 

 ble act of ejectment, and left clinging to the stone. 



It was not the first time that I had seen the Sea- 



