The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1886-08-07
A HOUSE OF SHELL.
The Many Wonderful Things Packed in
One Little Box.


The Many Wonderful Things Packed in
Ono Little Box.
Most of the curious things you pick
up on the scashorc are really wrecks
deserted houses, cast-off clothes, or
outgrown cradles and retreats of some
of the many strange and wonderful
creatures That live in the sea. If we
could read the tales they might tell we
should have more fascinating and
marvellous story book than was ever
printed. Some of them we can read,
thanks to close watching and long
study, and l want to tell you few of
the queer things we have found out
One of the prettiest objects to be
found OH the shore is lovely box as
white as snow, and more fragile than
the thinnest china. 1t is covered with
a pattern of tiny knobs and holes, that
look like delicate carving, and it is
round in shape, flattened on top ex-
actly like common white turnip.
These boxes are found Of many sizes,
from little ones, the size of pea, up
to great-grandmother as big as the
top of II tumble, and in some parts of
the world as big as a dining plate.
In this elegant house lived once a
very strange fellow called sea urchin.
His mouth opened on the under side of
his body, where the larger hole is in
the shell, and at that point he had five
big teeth, quite able to cut and dispose
OF any thing he wished to eat. His
house, this pretty box, was covered
with long, sharp spines like thorns,
that made him an unpleasant fellow to
take up. A spine stood up on every
one of the tiny knobs on the shell, and
could move about on it, exactly rs you
can move your arm on the shoulder.
His feet were perhaps the oddest
part OF him. though every thing about
him was strange. TO begin with, he
had dozens OF them; one coming out
of each of the little holes on the she'll.
Then they could be stretched out as
long as he wished, and the legs (you
may call them) were, of course, not
larger than threads. The foot itself,
at the end of each threadlike leg, was
round flat, like a boys leather
''suckcr," and they worked in the
same way; that is, when the urchin
wanted to walk he thrust ont his feet
on one side till they touched some
thing, where they stuck. held there, it
is said, by drawing out the air under
them; then he pulled himself along.
Ii you find one alive, rs you easily
can in the pools among the rocks on
our rocky coasts Gas in Maine), and
put him in soup plate of sea water,
you will soon see how he walks. He
will push out dozens of silvery threads,
fasten the little round feet ut the ends
to the side of the plate, and travel
quite rapidly around it, to find the way
out. Try to lift him then. and you will
find you can not do it except by tear
ing away some of his feet.
One of the most interesting things is
the way he grows The baby sea
urchin is about rs big as the dot over
one of the is on this page; one can
just see it moving slowly about in the
water; but with Il microscope he proves
to be an elegant little fellow, of the
oldest shape, perhaps more like a
painters easel than any thing else. 1t
is made OF clear, glassy-looking rods,
with rose-colored tips on some of the
upper ones, and covered with little
specks that reflect light and make it
very brilliant 1t moves about by way
ing in the water fringes of delicate
hairs-cilia the books call them-and
it is so very small that the waving of
hairs will move it about.
Now, what is oldest about this queer
object is really sort of living cradle,
for after awhile the real baby forms on
one side, and as it grows and becomes
able to take care of itself, the beautiful
CLASSY cradle wastes away, till, when
the young urchin can use its feet. and
drag about its cradle Cor nurse, as it
has been called), it wholly disappears,
and the infant has nothing to do but
grow.
How do you suppose tlis delicate
shell house gets biggerp for the urchin
never has but one, and when he was
the size of a pin-head it was not too
big for him, and when he is as large as
teacup it still fits him. Let me tell
you. When the owner lived in it the
box was made of several hundred
pieces, and covered by the thin skin OF
the living urchin. One work of this
skin was to enlarge the house rs fast
as he grew, and it was done by con.
stant adding of building material to
the edges OF each piece; thus each one
became bigger, and yet they always
fitted together. So you may say that
the box grew us well as the urchin that
lived init.
Surely more wonders We're never
packed in one little box; and haven t
told you all of them, either. 1t would
take the whole paper to give the COM
plete history OF this strange little Great
ure.
When the urchin is dead the spines
fall off, the body disappears, the sun
hleaches it, and you may find his emp
ty houses by hundreds cast up among
the sea-drift on the shore. i Christian
Union.