MARINE BIOLOGICAL STATION AT PORT ERIN. 63 
still a classic. In addition to its solid science and its value 
as a work of reference, there are scattered through it touches 
of humour, and the artistic and sometimes quaintly comic 
vignettes and tail-pieces, with which the author’s pencil has 
adorned the beginnings and ends of the sections, are a pleasing 
feature of the work. Let me quote just one passage, his 
description of the dredging of the Starfish, Luzdia fragilissima 
(as it was appropriately named at that time). 
“The first time I ever took 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 colours. On attempting to remove it for preservation, 
to my horror and disappointment I found only an assemblage 
of rejected members. My conservative endeavours were all 
neutralised by its destructive exertions, and it is now badly 
represented in my cabinet by an armless disk and a diskless 
arm. Next time I went to dredge on the same spot, determined 
not to be cheated out of a specimen 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 Imdia came up in the dredge, 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 sunk my bucket 
to a level with the dredge’s mouth, and proceeded in the 
most gentle manner to introduce Lwidia 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 dissolve 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.” (“ British Starfishes,”’ p. 138.) 
