PREFACE 



THIS volume is designed to be an aid to the amateur collector 

 and student of the organisms, both animal and vegetable, 

 which are found upon North American beaches. In it are 

 described many invertebrates and some of the more notable varie- 

 ties of seaweeds, and each individual is given its proper place in 

 the latest classification. 



The technicality of classification or scientific grouping may 

 at first seem repellent, but it in reality makes the study of these 

 objects more simple; and a systematic arrangement has been 

 adopted in the belief that it is the easiest as well as the only sat- 

 isfactory way of becoming familiar with the organisms described. 

 Without it a very confused picture of separate individuals would 

 be presented to the mind, and a book like the present one would 

 become a mere collection of isolated scraps of information. Mor- 

 phology, or the study of structure, has been touched upon just 

 enough to show the objects from the biologist's point of view and 

 to enable the observer to go a little beyond the bare learning of 

 names. 



Scientific names have been used from necessity, for the plants 

 and animals of the beach are so infrequently observed, except by 

 scientific people, that but few of them have common names; 

 and, as a matter of fact, the reader will find that a scientific name 

 is as easily remembered as a common one. Technical phrase- 

 ology has, however, been avoided as much as possible, even at the 



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