100 



LIFE, IX ITS LOWER FORMS, 



servative 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 Star- 

 fishes have a great antipathy. As I expected, a Luidia 

 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 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 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."* 



The Lingthorn, by the length and slenderness of its 

 rays, and by the comparative minuteness of its disk, as 

 well as by the fragility just mentioned, bears evidences of 

 close relationship with the Brittle-stars ; yet it truly be- 

 longs to another order of the class, the Star-fishes distinct- 

 ively so called. The surface is not here formed of angular 

 imbricate plates, but of a tough leathery or cartilaginous 

 skin, strengthened by calcareous plates imbedded in its 

 substance, and more or less studded with spines or tuber- 

 cles. The Cross-fish, or Five-finger {Uraster rubens), that 



* Forbes' " Brit. Star-fishes," 138. 



