HOW STAR- FISH WALK, ETC. 
77 
CHAPTER V. 
HOW STAR-FISH WALK AND SEA-URCHINS GROW. 
' ' O, what an endlesse \vorke have I in hand, 
To count the sea's abundant progeny, 
Whose fruitfull seede farre passeth those in land, 
And also those which wonne in th' azure sky ! 
For much more eath to tell the starres on hy, 
All be they endlesse seeme in estimation, 
Then to recount the sea's posterity, 
So fertile be the floods in generation, 
So huge their numbers, and so numberlesse their nation." 
SPENSER. 
NCE upon a time, in a quiet 
sea-bay on the south shores of 
Great Britain, five curious little 
oval jelly bodies were swimming 
about by their jelly-lashes in 
the depths of the smooth water. 
They had one and all been 
hatched from eggs not long be- 
fore, and their business and duty 
in life was to grow up into some 
form in which they could gain their 
living and protect themselves from 
harm. 
As each one came from a parent 
of a different shape and character, it was natural that 
they should follow different roads, although they all 
worked much upon the same general plan ; and though 
they were so small as to be scarcely visible, they soon 
