486 



Marvels of the Universe 



Crab would best fit its appearance as in the photograph. In ordinary his form and proportions 

 are not so clearly displayed, for it is his custom to carry a mass of living sponge upon his back ; 

 or, if the sponge is not there, its place is taken by a growth of polyps of various kinds. 



The Gnome is best known as a native of the ^Mediterranean and the Adriatic, but it also occurs 

 somewhat rarely on our own shores ; though this latter fact was not known to British naturalists 

 until the year 1824. The first recorded British example was discovered in Billingsgate Market, 

 among some ovsters that had come from Whitstable. Later it was found off the Sussex coast, 

 and again off Plymouth. The individual who sat for the portrait on page 485 came from Cornish 

 waters. In addition to his globular form, the Gnome is remarkable for his close pile of short hairs 



THE SK.ELETOX OF A TRICERATOPS. 



This strange creature was one of the group of vegetarian Dinosaurs, which developed during the latter part of the Secondary 

 Epoch, and which resumed progress on all four legs after its ancestors had for some ages hopped about lilie kangaroos on the 

 hind limbs only. In full-grown specimens the enormous skull was from seven to eight feet long. 



of a dull brown tint which looks like shabby velvet. He is moving lazily in the picture, but when 

 quite at rest he tucks his limbs (or most of them) under him, and then looks much like a dirty, 

 dark-coloured pebble. The exceptions to this general covering of velvet are the claws and the 

 pmk nippers, which appear to have been exempted on the principle that " cats in gloves catch no 

 mice " ; crabs in gloves might also find it difficult to catch their prey. The two hinder pairs of legs 

 have their attachment almost on the upper side of the crab, and are usually— the fifth pair always- 

 laid on the back, and provided with nippers. 



There is a reason for the last-named departure from rule in the case of crab-feet. The nippers 

 are a special development for holding the sponge we have referred to as usually concealing the Crab. 

 Bell, who wrote on the British crabs and their aUies, in 1853, strangely confused cause and effect 



