On the Seashore / Cassell's "Eyes and No Eyes" Series, Book VII

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Thomas Hutchinson, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
WITH EIGHT COLOUR PLATES AND MANY BLACK-AND-WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS
LESSON
COLOUR PLATES
BLACK AND WHITE ILLUSTRATIONS

FIVE-FINGERED JACK.
What fun it is down by the sea at low tide! Scrambling among the slippery rocks, we quickly fill a bucket with curious things. Some are dead, others very much alive; but all have a story to tell us--the story of the life they lead on the bed of the sea, or among the sands and rocks of the shore.
Look, here is a Starfish! It is lying on the sand, left high and dry by the waves, for now the tide is low. The Starfish looks limp and lifeless, its five reddish-coloured arms are quite still.
We know it is an animal that lives in the sea, and dies when washed ashore. But what does it do in the sea? How does it move without legs or fins? How can it live without a head? Has it a mouth? What does it eat, and how does it find its food?
Like so many other sea-animals, the Starfish is a puzzle. Some of its little tricks puzzled clever people until quite lately. But we know most of its secrets now.
Pass your finger down one of its arms, or rays. It feels rough, being covered with knobs and prickles. Now turn the Starfish over, and look carefully at its underside. In the centre, where the five arms meet, is the animal's mouth. A harmless sort of mouth, you think, too small to be of much use. Really, it is a terrible mouth, the mouth of an ogre!