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CHAPTER V.
"Pale glistening pearls, and rainbow-coloured Shells,
Bright things that gleam unreck'd of."
Before again starting, our party is reinforced by some friends who desire to be initiated into the wonders of the Sea-shore, and we ramble along ancle deep in the sea water, now enriching our own vasculum, and now explaining to some of the younger of our companions the habits and construction of many curious things with which they load themselves. One of them gathers some very beautiful Echini (Sea Eggs or Urchins) to which the spines are still adhering, and we save some for microscopic examination since they are important in the identification of species, varying probably in each. We mentioned before, (page 9), the peculiar suckers of the Starfishes, and those of the Sea-eggs are very similar. The beautiful (so called) shell of this creature is but little known, or it would surely be more appreciated; it is composed of five pieces admirably joined together, so as to form its habitation, and is perforated at each extremity by two large openings, one of which is the mouth, from which project five polished pointed teeth, better adapted, we should have thought, for large Molluscs than a vegetable diet of Algae and Desmidise. The calcareous plates (which are more easily examined when the spines are rubbed off), may be divided into two sets, varying as well in shape as in their use,—the larger being studded with hemispherical tubercles of consid-
