STAB- FISHES. 
113 
amounts to 8333 cwt.. : the price of which varies accord- 
ing to the quality (for there are more than thirty varieties 
distinguished in the market), from thirty shillings sterling 
to upwards of twenty guineas per cwt. The extent of the 
traffic may be inferred from tbo number of vessels em- 
ployed in it : Captain Flinders was informed, when near 
the north coast of New Holland, that a fleet of sixty proas, 
carrying a thousand men, had left Macassar for that coast 
two months before, in search of this sea-slug : and Cap- 
tain King was assured that two huudred proas annually 
leave Macassar for this fishery. They sail in January, 
coasting from island to island, till they reach Timor, and 
thence steer for New Holland, when they scatter them- 
selves in small fleets, and having fished along the coast, 
return about the end of May, when the westerly monsoon 
breaks up. 
The changes which occur in the development of the 
Echinodf.umata arc not less wonderful than other passages 
of their history. Until lately we knew nothing of the 
infancy of the Star-fishes, but Johann Muller has, with 
great skill, industry, and success, solved this problem. 
The first condition of every Echinodcrm is the same — an 
egg-like body, covered with cilia, resembling an Infuso- 
rium. Changes take place, and we presently see another 
form assumed, which varies in some degree in the diffe- 
rent families. We lately had the pleasure of finding in 
our dip-net several little larvae of a Brittle-star — the first 
that had ever been seen in our seas ; and one of these we 
will select for description. 
A painter’s long easel affords the only object with 
which to compare the little creature ; for it consists of 
H 
