STAR-FISHES. 117 



are as frequent as sea-urchins, those of the genus 

 Ur aster, Ophidiaster, and Asterina, among the 

 rocks by the shore ; Asterias and Luidia, on 

 sandy bottoms of a few fathoms depth ; whilst 

 Goniaster and Palmipes extend their range to 

 between thirty and sixty fathoms. The brittle- 

 stars, however, are found at much greater depths, 

 and in the deepest parts of the Gulf of Macri, 

 which were explored by the dredge, even as deep 

 as one thousand and eighty feet below the surface 

 of the sea, the long, slender, worm-like arms 

 of Amphiura cliiagii were found twisting and 

 writhing in the soft grey mud. 



Among the most plentiful marine animals 

 in muddy bays are the Holothurice, mostly long, 

 leathery, chocolate-brown species having their 

 heads garnished by twenty short tentacula. We 

 did not hear of their being used as food, though 

 they might be advantageously, since they are 

 of the same nature as the Trepang, so much 

 sought after as an article of luxury in the 

 Indian seas. They are exceedingly sluggish 

 creatures, but scarcely so much so as to permit 

 our considering them to be identical with the 

 creatures called Holothurice by the ancients, 

 which are said by Aristotle to be motionless, 



