A STROLL BY THE SEA-SIDE. 247 



























sent it here: “The first time I ever caught one of these 
creatures, I succeeded in getting it into the boat entire. 
Never having seen one before, and quite unconscious of its 
suicidal powers, I spread it out on a rowing-bench, the better 
to admire its form and colors. On attempting to remove it 
for preservation, to my horror and disappointment I found 
only an assemblage of rejected members. My conservative 
endeavors were all neutralized by its destructive exertions, 
and it is now badly represented in my cabinet by an armless 
disk and diskless arm, Next time I went to dredge on the 
same spot, and, determined not to be cheated out of a speci- 
men in such a way a second time, I brought with me a 
bucket of cold fresh-water, to which article starfishes have a 
great antipathy. As I expected, a Luidia came up in the 
edge, a most gorgeous specimen. As it does not generally 
break up before it is raised above the surface of the sea, 
cautiously and anxiously I sank my bucket to a level with 
he dredge’s mouth, and proceeded in the most gentle man- 
her to introduce Luidia to the purer element. Whether the 
cold air was too much for him, or the sight of the bucket too 
terrific, I know not, but, in a moment, he proceeded to dis- 
solve his corporation, and at every mesh of the dredge his 
fragments were seen escaping. In despair I grasped at the 
largest, and brought up the extremity of an arm with its 
terminating eye, the spinous eyelid of which opened and 
closed with something exceedingly like a wink of derision.” 
While parting carefully the floating masses of sea-weed in 
Search for other novelties, our attention is attracted by the 
unusual movements of a large shell, commonly called the 
whelk. As the customary movements of nearly all mollusks 
are slow and sluggish, we are the more surprised at these 
movements. We at once secure the shell, and are rather 
MeMivunded to find .it a. bleached and sea-worn specimen, 
th no traces of its original inhabitant within. We drop it 
Upon the rocks, and directly out comes a singular-looking 

