1889.] Wa/ks Under the Sea by a Coral Strand. 951 
There are at least three star-fishes found in this bay, the largest 
of which {Pentaceros reticulatus), the star of the new " Curiosity 
Shop," is of the first magnitude, a foot or more in diameter. It 
is anywhere a conspicuous object, and its deep brown and yellow 
patterns show distinctly on the white sea floor. A five-pointed 
star is the rule, but occasionally a monster appears among them, 
who abbreviates the number of its arms to 4 or increases them to . 
6. I once found a small star with only three rays, and one day 
met with a large fellow, one of whose five normal arms had been 
amputated, bitten off by an enemy perhaps, and a new one was 
growing in its stead. 
The beds of weed which extend as wide bands up and down 
the bay are occupied almost exclusively by a large white sea- 
urchin (perhaps Hippomoe\ called the " Sea Eggs " from their 
white papery shells, which are often picked up on the beach. So 
thick are they it takes some care to avoid stepping on them, to 
do which with bare feet, to say the least, is certainly not pleas- 
ant, although the spines of this species are quite short and with- 
out venom. I am reminded of a pasture where the grass is 
cropped close. Here are forty thousand feeding like one, but 
not on the grass, for the cropping in this case is not from the 
herd. The sea weed or alga in question has a narrow blade a 
few inches long, which ends abruptly as if cut off by scissors. 
These sea eggs are all of about the same size — that of a flattened 
base ball, and the question at once arises, Where are the young 
and intermediate stages ? I remember to have seen but one or 
two undersized sea urchins, although I made daily visits to the 
reef for many weeks. This is probably but a common illustra- 
tion of the fact that the struggle for life is far greater with the 
young than with the adults. Of the newly-born host, a very 
large number must be overtaken by death before reaching the 
adult state. But the survivors live through many generations, 
and thus their numbers increase. If this were not so in the case 
even of a single prolific animal, the ocean would soon be over- 
run by it. 
The flowers of the coral gardens are the sea-anemones or 
actinias. They look like bright rosettes, scattered here and there 
