416 Echinodermata. 



selves. The above opinion that they have no free motion, was further confirmed by 

 my detaching certain fish with peculiarities of form, which I threw to a moderate dis- 

 tance from the shore, and which were thrown up the next tide. After storms great 

 quantities are thrown up. I do not mean to insist that they always remain stationary, 

 but that they do in the spring months I have not the least doubt. The anemones prey 

 on the cross-fish indiscriminately with shell-fish. I could find neither cross-fish, sun- 

 stars, nor anemones on the Pegwell side of Rarasgate; but on the western side the 

 anemones were very plentiful and very large, and some of them were embedded in the 

 sand to the depth of four inches ; in digging down you find them attached to the rock 

 or some stone ; they evidently adapt themselves by elongating their bodies as the sand 

 rises above them. — W. Thompson; London, November, 1843. 



Note on an unusual Snow-storm. We were visited here, in Yorkshire, on the 17th 

 of October, by an unusually early and severe snow-storm, the effects of which were ve- 

 ry curious, for the leaves being at that time still on the trees, they held up the snow 

 in a remarkable manner, till the superincumbent weight became more than the branch- 

 es and boughs could support, and one by one they gave way, till the whole country in 

 every direction was strewed with them. But it is an ill wind that blows nobody good, 

 and the poor have obtained a windfall in an unwonted supply of the needful article of 

 firewood. The ash trees sent their top-gallant yards down on deck, as if they had, for 

 once, adopted the motto, "frangas nonflectes, y but the oaks, in many instances, still 

 suspend their fractured and twisted branches between sky and sod, like Mahomet's 

 coffin, and so they will doubtless remain for some time longer. The sound of the 

 branches cracking and giving way on all sides, had a very singular effect. The wind 

 was not high, at least in sheltered places, and the first crash I heard was caused, I 

 thought, by a tree being felled; but reflecting, the next moment, that it was not a 

 likely day for that operation, I looked round, and soon had ocular and auricular proof 

 from various quarters of the real cause. The fields were strewed in all directions with 

 boughs already broken, and every few minutes others might be heard or seen following 

 their downward course. — 



" How bowed the woods beneath their fleecy weight ! " 

 It was remarked to me by an observer, how melancholy an appearance the green trees 

 presented when covered with this unusual and unseasonable mantle, quite a contrast 

 to their cheerful aspect when " Gaffer Winter " has stripped oft' their leaves : — 

 " When the hoar frost is chill 

 Upon mountain and rill," 

 And when the smallest sprays and twigs of the forest glitter and twinkle in the sun, 

 with their temporary covering. Not only has every season its beauties, but any ana- 

 chronism destroys the harmony of their good keeping. The 1 7th of October, 1843 I 

 shall not soon forget, nor will, I think, a mare I rode that day, for I set out in the 

 midst of the storm, but though well becoated, I soon found that I had better return, 

 unless I wished to sit in wet clothes all the day. The mare was much frightened, but 

 notwithstanding her shying we did not part company. — F. O. Morris; Crambe Vicar- 

 age, York, November, 1843. 



