intestine. But at a later period, or towards autumn, much of the vacant space is found filled with large masses of ova or eggs. These were much prized by the ancients, who dressed them in various ways, and they are eaten in many parts of the world at the present day. Such of my young readers as have read Byron's narrative of the loss of the Wager in 1740, may be reminded of his description of the young Indian woman, taking a basket in her mouth, jumping out of the boat, diving to the bottom, and bringing it up filled with sea-eggs, for by that name Sea-Urchins in egg are referred.

Leaving now the Echinide, we come to another family, the Holothuride, in which the body, instead of being rough or prickly, is soft like that of a snail. The Holothuria has suckers like the Star-fish or the SeaUrchin; but it can also move by the contraction and expansion of its body in the same manner as a worm. The English term "Sea-Cucumber," gives some idea of the appearance; and it will be still better understood by a reference to Fig. 42, which

Fig. 42.

represents the largest species yet discovered in the British seas. (Cucumaria frondosa.) The strangest thing about these animals is the manner in which they part with the most important organs, casting them away as things of no account. Sir John Dalzell states, from his own observation, that after this had been done so thoroughly that the body remained like an empty sac, in a few months all the lost parts were reproduced. This is the more remarkable, as the anatomical structure is remarkably complex. Sir John informs us that a Holothuria has produced five thousand ova in the course of a single night.

When parts so important as the tentacula, the mouth, the oesophagus, and the intestine are wilfully discarded by the Holothuria, we can scarcely expect it will remain true to its proper form of body. Could our vagabonds, whose descriptions fill the Hue and Cry, acquire from this humble marine animal the power of changing, like him, their form and dimensions, they would have a better chance of escape. The very species

which is here figured (Fig. 42) is sometimes pleased to pull in his tentacula, and assume a perfect oval figure; and again, when the whim seizes him, he can contract towards the middle to such a degree, that he reminds one of an hour-glass.

These animals come but rarely under our notice, and can only be regarded by us as objects of philosophical interest. But in other parts of the world they are sought for with great avidity, and even constitute an important branch of commerce, under the name of Trepang, or Beche-de-mer. They are sold to the Chinese, along with sharks' fins, and edible birds'-nests. Captain Flinders fell in with a fleet of Malay proas engaged in this traffic, at the English Company's Islands, north coast of New Holland, near the Gulf of Carpentaria (1803); and was informed that sixty proas, belonging to the Rajah of Boni, and carrying one thousand men, had left Macassar, with the north-west monsoon, two months before, on an expedition to that coast, for the purpose of collecting the trepang. The process of curing is a simple one. The trepang is split down one side, boiled, pressed with stones; then stretched open with slips of bamboo, dried in the sun, and afterwards in smoke; it is then fit to be put away in bags.

We come now to the last family of the Star-fishes, the Sipunculida or spoon worms. They are the outliers of the Radiate kingdom, and have abandoned the costume and external appearance of their relatives, and put on that of worms, true subjects of the

where the real affinity exists. They are not | furnished with suckers; and they move as worms do, by the expansion and contraction of different segments of the body. Some are found under stone; some burrow in sand; and some select as their mansion an empty univalve shell. Such is the practice of the species here represented, (Fig. 43, Sipunculus Bernhardus), resembling in this respect the Hermit crabs. Its colour is white; the animal can extend itself to a length of three inches, can retract the entire proboscis at pleasure, and change at will the proportions of the body itself.

We should hardly expect that animals so lowly in their organization, so harmless to man in their habits, as the Echinodermata, would be made the objects of either superstitious fears or practices. Yet when Dr. Drummond, the talented author of First Steps to Botany, was drying some specimens of the common Star-fishes or Five-fingers, in a little garden at Bangor, (Co. Down,) he heard some children on the other side of the hedge say, "What's the gentleman doing with the bad man's hands; is he ganging to eat the bad man's hands, do ye

think?" It appears that the name they are known by there, is that of the Devil'sfingers, and the Devil's-hands, and that children have a superstitious dread of touching them.

There is another species, distinguished by the great regularity of its outline-the Butthorn, (Asterias aurantica, Fig. 44,) and pretty generally distributed round our coasts. Of this Mr. Bean of Scarborough communicates to Professor Forbes the following singular superstition. "Our fishermen call this species a Butthorn. The first taken is carefully made a prisoner, and placed on a seat at the stern of the boat.

When they hook a but (holibut) they immediately give the poor star-fish its liberty, and commit it to its native element; but if their fishery is unsuccessful, it is left to perish, and may eventually enrich the cabinet of some industrious collector." (To be continued.)

TEN THOUSAND WONDERFUL

LONDON

THINGS.

SHOPS OF QUEEN ELIZABETH'S
DAYS.

The use of a volume like this is to present the matters of past times, and gather from them such particulars as may be encouragement to hope for future progress, by comparing the social and other progress which has been made during certain portions of our national history; and besides this, to store up the representations and descriptions of such objects as may be worthy of imitation in consequence of their fitness for certain purposes at the present day, or useful as examples of beautiful and artistic design and execution.

The old London shops shown in the adjoining engraving are pictured by the artist after the most careful research and investigation, and it is therefore probable that the view of old times in a city street is as accurate as if photography, or those skilled in "perspectives," had been then forthcoming to take the prospect.

The sketch shows one of those contrasts to which we have alluded. Compare the quaint and rugged shops of James the First's reign with those which now line the chief streets-elegant in architectural designs and brilliant with the decoration of plate-glass, metal work, and light in the evening-time with gas, dazzling almost as much as in the day.

The first shops of the London traders were formed in some portion of the usual residence, the statute and other fairs being, however, chiefly depended on for the sale of their manufactures. In course of time business became more localised, and particular trades-as is in some measure the case at present-began to occupy particular districts. These traders, more anxious for display than others, put goods for sale in front of their houses; these, in some instances, became fixed erections; then, as a means of protection against the weather, the stalls were covered, and after became substantial structures. In spite of regulations which were made in those ancient

times, the houses were marched towards and connected with the shops. The very same process may be seen going on now in the Caledonian-road, Islington; in the Newroad, the City-road, and other unfinished thoroughfares: in some instances people set out a table for the sale of a few goods; then a little wooden fabric covered with tarpauling is put up; and afterwards the intervening plot of ground, which had once been a garden, is covered with a shop, which, as the neighbourhood improves, becomes more elegant in its appearance.

The streets of the metropolis must, in the "good old times," have been singularly uncomfortable: no pavement, except here and there a few rough boulder stones; in rainy weather things were almost impassable-the water poured from the pents and other projections, and remained in large puddles-a rainy day in those days must have caused a total suspension of business; for what could tempt a lady abroad under such circumstances? From time to time specimens of the old pavement of London, which has been buried by the accumulation of more recent soil, &c., are brought to view, and it is evident that carriages could with difficulty be dragged along; sedanchairs were not introduced, and the use of umbrellas in England not thought of. Even

as short a time ago as the reign of Queen Anne, a large number of the shops in the principal streets in the City were unglazed, and in the prints of that time the projecting signs are shown_swinging above every place of business. Few matters show the onward progress of the country more clearly than the contrast of the shops in the reign of Queen Elizabeth and those of Queen Victoria's days.

CASCADE DES PELERINES.

There is a waterfall in Chamouni which no traveller should omit going to see, called the Cascade des Pélerines. It is one of the most curious and beautiful scenes in Switzerland. A torrent issues from the Glacier des Pélerines, high up the mountain, above the Glacier du Bossons, and descends, by a succession of leaps, in a deep gorge, from precipice to precipice, almost in one continual cataract; but it is all the while merely gathering force, and preparing for its last magnificent deep plunge and recoil of beauty. Springing in one round condensed column out of the gorge, over a perpendicular cliff, it strikes, at its fall, with its whole body of water, into a sort of vertical rock basin, which one would suppose its prodigious velocity and weight would split into a thousand pieces; but the