Page:The fairy tales of science.djvu/154

124 Here is a curious creature, closely resembling those we have just examined, in form and substance, but belonging to a totally different class of beings. It looks like a milk-white slug, but if we inspect it carefully, we shall find that it is provided with five rows of delicate sucking arms, by means of which it clings firmly to the surface of the rock. It also has a chocolate-coloured head, tipped with a ring of feathery gills of white and primrose. Those naturalists who have studied the habits of marine creatures, inform us that this white slug will throw away its inside when irritated, the body remaining but an empty sac; yet in a month or so the creature will begin to eat as greedily as ever, a fresh set of digestive organs having grown in the interim.

Our artist has furnished his mermaid with a couple of star-shaped ornaments, and here we may see plenty of similar stars in motion. Whether we regard their symmetrical forms or their brilliant hues, we must admit these living stars to be the most remarkable inhabitants of these realms of wonder. Even this dusky red one possesses great beauty, though its flaming relatives throw it into the shade. You see it has five broad rays, but you must not suppose that these rays fulfil the office of legs, for the creature’s legs, if so we may call them, are thousands of tiny suckers, protruding through