There are not a few persons still to be met with, who believe that man and the lower animals appeared simultaneously upon the face of the earth. Geology most forcibly proves the error of such an idea, for although the fossilized remains of every other class of organized beings have been discovered, human bones have nowhere been found. This fact, though deeply interesting, is perhaps not more so than many others which this wonderful science has unfolded. What can be more startling to the student for instance, than the information that for a long period, it may be thousands of years, no species of fish whatever inhabited the primeval seas? True it is that certain creatures occupied the shallows and depths of ocean, but these were of the lowest type. The most conspicuous were the coral polypes, which even then as now were ever industriously building up lasting monuments of their existence, as the Trilobites, a group of Crustacea, and the Crinoids, or Lily-stars.

The last-mentioned group of animals were analogous to the present tribe of Star-fishes, and are now nearly extinct. The body of the Lily-star, which resembled some beautiful radiate flower, was affixed to a long, slender stalk, composed of a series of solid plates superposed upon one another, bound together by a fleshy coat, and made to undulate to and fro in any direction at the will of the animal. The stalk was firmly attached to some foreign substance, and consequently the Crinoid Star-fish, unlike its modern representative, could not rove about in search of prey, but only capture such objects as came within reach of its widely expanded arms. 'Scarcely a dozen kinds of these beautiful creatures,' observes Professor Forbes, 'now live in the seas of our globe, and individuals of these kinds are comparatively rarely to be met with; formerly they were among the most numerous of the ocean's inhabitants,—so numerous that the remains of their skeletons constitute great tracts of the dry land as it now appears. For miles and miles we may walk over the stony fragments of the Crinoidae, fragments which were once built up in animated forms, encased in living flesh, and obeying the will of creatures among the loveliest of the inhabitants of the ocean. Even in their present disjointed and petrified state, they excite the admiration not only of the naturalist, but of the common gazer; and the name of stone lily, popularly applied to them, indicates a popular appreciation of their beauty.' Each wheel-like joint of the fossil Encrinite being generally perforated in the centre, facility is thus afforded for stringing a number of these objects together like beads, and in this form the monks of old, according to tradition, used the broken fragments of the lily-stars as rosaries. Hence the common appellation of St Cuthbert's Beads, to which Sir Walter Scott alludes,—

One solitary species of the Crinoid Star-fishes has of late years been found to flourish in our own seas; it is, however, affixed to a stalk (pedunculated) only in the early periods of its existence.

When first discovered by Mr. Thompson in its infant state, the Pentacrinus EuropÆus was believed to be a distinct animal. It was taken attached to the stems of zoophytes of different orders, and measured about three-fourths of an inch in height. In form it resembled a minute comatula mounted on the stalk of a Pentacrinus. Subsequent research has proved that the little stranger was merely the young state of the feather star Comatula rosacea, and that although for a certain period attached to a slender waving stem, the Pentacrinus, when arrived at a certain stage of development, feels fully able to start life on its own accord, and hence takes opportunity to break off its early ties, and become a free animal, dependent upon its own exertions for subsistence.

It is no uncommon thing, as a late writer forcibly remarks, in the inferior classes of the animal kingdom, to find animals permanently attached from the period of their birth, and during all their existence. Familiar examples of this occur in the oyster, and various other bivalve shell-fish, as well as in numerous compound zoophytes. We likewise meet with races which are free and locomotive in their first stages, and afterwards become permanently fixed; but an animal growing for a period in the similitude of a flower on a stem, and then dropping from its pedicle, and becoming during the remainder of its life free and peripatetic, is not only new, but without any parellel in the whole range of the organized creation.

The Comatula, or as it is commonly called, the Rosy Feather-star, is allowed to be without exception the most lively of all the star-fishes. Its movements in swimming are said to resemble exactly the alternating strokes given by the medusa to the liquid element, and have the same effect, causing the animal to raise itself from the bottom, and to advance back foremost even more rapidly than the medusa. It has ten very slender rays with numbers of long beards on the sides. The body, which is of a deep rose colour, is small and surrounded with ten little filiform rays. The extremities of these organs are shaped like claws, by means of which the animal attaches itself to various kinds of sea-weed, and other submarine objects.

The adult Comatula generally measures about five inches across its fully expanded rays.

Before treating of what are termed the true Star-fishes, we require to dwell briefly upon an intermediate family named by Professor Forbes the OphiuridÆ, 'from the long serpent or worm-like arms, which are appended to their round, depressed, urchin like bodies.... They hold the same relation to the Crinoidea that the true Star-fishes hold to the Sea-Urchins. They are spinigrade animals, and have no true suckers by which to walk, their progression being effected (and with great facility) by means of five long flexible-jointed processes placed at regular distances around their body, and furnished with spines on the sides and membraneous tentacula. These processes are very different from the arms of the true Star-fishes, which are lobes of the animal's body, whereas the arms of the OphiuridÆ are super-added to the body, and there is no excavation in them for any longation of the digestive organs.'[16]

The British OphiuridÆ are now classed under two genera; of the OphiurÆ, or Sand-stars only two species (O. texturata and O. albida) are found on our shores; and the OphicomÆ, or Brittle-stars, of which there are ten.

An extraordinary feature, characteristic of all the above-mentioned animals, is the great tendency which they have to mutilate themselves, and throw their limbs about in fragments on the slightest provocation. If a specimen be handled, a certain number of fragments will assuredly be cast off. If the rays become entangled in sea-weed, or even if the water in which the animal resides happens to become impure, the same disastrous result follows, until nothing but the little circular disc remains. As a set off against this weakness, both the OphiurÆ and the Brittle-stars possess reproductive powers of a high order. Hence it not unfrequently happens that if each and all the rays of a specimen be rejected, the animal will live on, and eventually, perhaps, become a complete and perfect star-fish.

The best means of preserving an Ophiura is to let the devoted animal remain for a time expanded in sea-water, then with a small pair of forceps lift it carefully up, and plump it into a bath of cold 'fresh' water, letting it lie there for about an hour. The animal speedily dies, as if poisoned, in the fresh liquid, in a state of rigid expansion. Some writers recommend that, at this stage, the specimen should be dipped for a moment into boiling water, and then dried in a current of air; but I have never been able to detect any great benefit arising from the adoption of the process.

When examining any of the Brittle-stars, I have always found it an excellent plan to raise them up by aid of the forceps applied to the disc. By this means a specimen may be moved about without any fear of mutilation; whereas if the fingers be used as forceps, an unhappy result will assuredly follow.

The Ophiocoma rosula, figured on Plate 9, will serve to convey to the reader a general idea of this class of animals. Its popular title is the Common Brittle-star, indicative of the inherent fragility of the species, as also of their prevalent appearance at the sea-shore; but, though so exceedingly 'common,' we must at the same time in justice add, that the O. rosula exceeds in beauty many other species which are rare, and consequently more highly prized by the collector.

It is very abundant on all parts of the British coast, and is often found in clusters upon the stems of L. digitata, and as frequently upon the under side of boulders. In dredging, the Brittle-star is an unfailing prize. It is a marvellous sight when the scrapings of the ocean bed are spread out upon the dredging-board for examination, to see hundreds of these singularly delicate creatures twisting and twining about in all directions,—over each other's bodies, through the weed, sand, shells, and mud, and strewing fragments of their snake-like arms upon every surrounding object.

At the mere mention of 'Star-fishes,' the most uninitiated reader will at once realize in his mind's eye a tolerably correct notion of the form of these curious productions of the marine animal kingdom, even although he had never seen a living or dead specimen.

The body of the animal is divided into rays, like the pictured form of one of the heavenly stars, and the fancied resemblance is most apparent in the AsteridÆ, or true Star-fishes, of which we are now about to speak.

This wonderful race of animals, for their beauty of colour, elegance of shape, and peculiarity of structure, possess a great degree of interest, not only to the naturalist, but also to the casual observer by the sea-side.

There are fourteen British species of AsteriadÆ, which are arranged under four families, namely—the UrasteriÆ, the SolasteriÆ, the GonasteriÆ, and the AsteriÆ. This group contains no less than eight generic types, clearly distinguished from each other by certain characters, 'derived from the outline of the body, the number of rows of suckers in the avenues, and the structure and arrangement of the spines covering the surface and bordering the avenues.'

There are four species of Star-fishes belonging to the genus Uraster, the most common of which is the Uraster rubens, or Common Cross-fish.

No person in the habit of visiting the sea-shore can be unfamiliar with the likeness of this creature, which is generally seen lying wedged in some rocky crevice, or among the Fuci, there patiently waiting the return of the tide.

At such a time, the Devil's-hand (as the Irish people term it), does not appear by any means attractive. If placed in water, however, its appearance becomes wonderfully improved.

Here is a small specimen, just brought from the sea-shore at Cockburnspath (a most romantic and delightful locality, situated on the coast of Berwickshire). It is neatly wrapped up in a mantle of sea-weed. Freed of its verdant envelope, I deposit the youthful Rubens upon his back—'willy-nilly'—in a tumbler partly filled with clear sea-water, and then proceed to watch its movements through a magnifier.

At a glance we perceive that each of its five rays is grooved on its lower surface, and filled with minute perforations, through which is gradually protruded a multitude of fleshy suckers, knobbed at the end. It is by aid of these organs that the animal grasps its food, and changes its position, as we shall presently see. One of the rays is now slowly lifted up and moved about in various directions, while from its extreme point the suckers are extended to the utmost limit. No sooner do they touch the side of the vessel than they are firmly fixed and contracted. A point d'appui being thus gained, the animal is enabled by degrees to draw its body round, so as to get another regiment of suckers into play, and, by such plan of operations being repeated, the animal is eventually enabled to 'right itself,' and crawl up the polished surface of the glass.

Generally, when the Star-fish is disturbed, or placed on a dry piece of stone, the suckers are withdrawn into the body, leaving no signs of their previous existence except a series of minute tubercles. In fact, the Asterias, although enabled to adhere with great tenacity to any foreign object when immersed in water, possesses but little power to retain its hold if the fluid be removed. Hence the young zoologist, keeping this peculiarity in mind, should not too hurriedly return a verdict of 'Found dead,' when he meets with a helpless specimen upon the beach, for in all likelihood, were the creature to be laid for a few minutes in a rock-pool, it would soon exhibit signs of returning animation.

A simpler, though not so sure a test for ascertaining whether a Star-fish be living or not, is to handle the specimen. If it feels soft and flabby, it is dead; but if tolerably firm to the touch, it may be 'recalled to life,' by the means pointed out.

It may not be out of place to chronicle here a singular circumstance which the writer has often verified in connection with the true Star-fishes. It is this. When any captured specimens have been placed in confinement, no matter how large or small such might be, they never moved through the liquid element with a tithe of the rapidity that I well knew they were capable of. At the sea-side, I have seen a specimen of the Cross-fish glide through the water so nimbly, yet withal so gracefully, that I have felt inclined to rank natation among the few other acomplishments of which the species can boast.

The Uraster rubens is also popularly known as 'Five Fingers.' For ages past it has been subject to the bitter denunciation of fishermen and others, for the injury which it is said to inflict upon oysters. At one time, according to Bishop Spratt, the Admiralty Court laid penalties upon those engaged in the oyster-fishing who did not tread under their feet, or throw upon the shore, a fish they call a Five-Finger, resembling a spur-rowel, because that fish gets into the oysters when they gape, and sucks them out. Poets have also endeavoured to perpetuate the vulgar opinion:—

Even yet the oyster fishermen at certain localities wreak all possible vengeance upon the 'submarine Dando's,' for their supposed gourmandizing propensities. I say supposed, for although so many naturalists have studied the question, it is not, up to the present time, satisfactorily settled. Some deny the alleged tendency altogether, while less sceptical observers are unable to understand the mode in which the Star-fish could injure an animal apparently so capable of self-defence as the oyster. According to certain authors, the Star-fish encircles the oyster with its five fingers, and by some clever process of suction destroys the unfortunate mollusc. Others, again, maintain that the first step of the attack is the injection of some marine chloroform between the shells of the oyster, and that during the insensibility that follows, the Star-fish effects an entrance.

As this is an interesting subject, perhaps the reader would like to have the exact words which are used by two celebrated naturalists, one of whom attempts to vindicate the character of the AsteridÆ, the other to blacken it.

Sir John Dalyell—a high authority upon all matters of marine zoology—shrewdly remarks: 'I have not heard it suggested that the Star-fish possesses any kind of solvent compelling the bivalves to sunder. Neither can its hostility be very deadly to the larger univalves, from the distance to which they are enabled to retreat within their portable dwellings. Their general habits are, to force the shells of smaller bivalves asunder, and to devour the contents; they likewise consume the substance of ordinary fishes entire; nevertheless, as far as I am yet aware, their destruction of oysters is destitute of evidence. The Star-fish sometimes shows an eversion of stomach, or of some membrane of it. Whether this may be the means of affecting their prey, merits investigation.'

Professor Jones, who affirms that in the latter suggestion Sir J. Dalyell has nearly hit upon the true solution of the problem, thus gives what he considers to be the correct mode of procedure on the part of the Star-fish: 'Grasping its shell-clad prey between its rays, and firmly fixing it by means of its prehensile suckers, it proceeds deliberately to turn its stomach inside out, embracing in its ample folds the helpless bivalve, and perhaps at the same time instilling some torpifying fluid, for the shells of the poor victim seized soon open, and it then becomes an easy prey.'

Now, many fishermen with whom I have conversed hold the same opinion as Bishop Spratt, and believe that when the oyster is gaping the Star-fish insinuates a finger, and hastily scrapes out the delicious mouthful; nay, further maintain that the Star-fish is far from being successful at all times, very often, especially when there has only been one ray inserted, the frightened oyster grasps it with all his might, and obliges his discomfited opponent to retire minus a limb.

If the writer might venture to suggest an opinion, he would express his belief that the following is the correct account of the state of matters. He believes with the fishermen that frequently the star-fish begins his attack by inserting an arm, but he does not believe that the oyster under such circumstances escapes with life. Let us suppose the star-fish to have succeeded in insidiously introducing a ray within the shell of the apathetic oyster, and that the oyster immediately resented such intrusion by closing his shell with all the force he can exert. The opposite argument at this stage is, that the intruder is obliged from pain to abandon his hold, and even pay for his audacity by the forfeit of a limb. But against this we advance the notorious fact, that the star-fish, like so many marine creatures of a similar organization, is remarkably indifferent to pain. I therefore believe the true explanation to be, that the oyster being unable to sustain such continued muscular exertion for nearly so long a time as the star-fish can tolerate the pressure upon its ray, the latter is consequently, in the long run, successful.

The number of rays in the several genera of the true Star-fishes is extremely various. In the genus Uraster, as we have seen, five is the predominant number. If we turn to the two species which comprise the genus Cribella, we still find the quintuple arrangement adhered to. In Solaster endeca, on the contrary, the rays vary from nine to eleven, and even reach as high as twelve or fifteen in Solaster papposa.

In the genus Palmipes we have the pentagonal form, it is true, but the space between each ray is filled up, so as to resemble the webbed foot of a bird, hence the popular title of this solitary species, 'The Bird's-foot Sea-star.' 'It is the flattest of all its class, and when alive it is flexible like a piece of leather.' Passing by the 'Cushion-stars' (which have five angles—it seems a misnomer to call them rays), which connect the true Star-fishes with the Sea-Urchins, we come lastly to the 'Lingthorn,' Luidia fragillisima, with its seven rays. This is the animal of which Professor Forbes discourses so pleasantly about its winking derisively at his despairing endeavours to preserve even a small portion of what at that time was his maiden specimen. The Luidia is even more brittle—more regardless of its wholeness, than the OphiurÆ, which renders the capture of a perfect specimen a most difficult task.