14 (Bzilletin of the Jhatural History Society, 
well known to require repetition. But teachers should not 
forget that before they can make use of this means towards 
the much to be desired end, they must be trained in these 
respects themselves. To those who live within reach of the 
sea-shore, the group we are considering is a particularly good 
one for self-training. Those who may take up the study can 
have the additional stimulus of knowing that they may at 
any time add to science a substantial contribution. Problems 
are waiting everywhere for solution, and many of them are 
within the reach of any patient and accurate observer. 
Almost nothing is known of the habits of even our most 
common Echinoderrns, not enough to give us any clear idea 
to what features of their environment their very peculiar 
structure is adapted. We cannot doubt that the ten rays of 
Solaster, or the five of Cribrella, or the spine-clusters of 
Crossaster, or the marginal web of P ter aster, are as ex- 
quisitely adapted to some conditions of those animals’ lives as 
is the structure of a flower to cross-fertilization by Insects. 
No one of the Echmoderms of our coast has any special 
economic value. Doubtless this fact explains why they have 
been so little noticed by those early writers who treated of 
the natural history of the Province. Early works which 
have chapters on the Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Fishes, 
quite ignore this group, though mentioning the edible Mol- 
lusca and Crustacea. The earliest reference to the Echino- 
derms of this region is found in “ Les Voyages du Sieur de 
Champlain,” written by Cliamplain himself and published at 
Paris in 1013. He mentions the occurrence of Sea-urchins 
in 1604 on Saint Croix (now Dochet or Neutral) Island ; 
‘‘ Autour de notre habitation il y a de basse mer quantile de 
coquillages, comme coques, moulles, ourcins & bregaux qui 
faisoyent grand bien a chacun.” Lescarbot and Denys seem 
to make no mention of the group, though the latter wrote a 
book on the natural history of this part of Canada. No 
work seems to contain any reference to them up to Cooney’s 
‘‘History of Northern New Brunswick and Gaspe,” in 1832, 
which mentions among the “ shell-fish ” of the Province, the 
Starfish and Sea-urchin. Rev. C. Atkinson, in 1844, mentions 
