ZOOPHYTES. 325 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



ZOOPHYTES. 



It is pleasant to go clown to the shore on a bright autum- 

 nal morning at low water, when the tide has receded far, 

 exposing great areas of wet sand, and wildernesses of 

 rugged rocks draped with black and red weed. It is 

 pleasant to make our way on cautious foot round some 

 frowning point whose base is usually beaten by the 

 billows; to travel among the slippery boulders, now leap- 

 ing from one to another, now winding between them, 

 now creeping under their beetling roofs; to penetrate 

 Avhere we have never ventured before, and to explore 

 with a feeling of undefined awe the wild solitudes where 

 the hollow sea growls, and the grey gull wails. It is 

 pleasant to get under the shadow of the tall cliffs of 

 limestone, to creep into low, arching caves, and there to 

 stoop and peer into the dark pools, which lie filled to the 

 brim with water as clear as crystal, and as unruffled as a 

 well. What little worlds are these rugged basins! How 

 full of life all unsuspected by the rude stone-cutter that 

 daily trudges by them to and from his work in the marble 

 quarry of the cliff above ! What arts, and wiles, and 

 stratagems are being practised there ! what struggles for 

 mastery, for food, for life ! what pursuits and flights ! 

 what pleasant gambols! what conjugal and parental 

 affections ! what varied enjoyments ! what births ! what 

 deaths ! are every hour going on in these unruffled wells, 

 beneath the brown shadow of the umbrageous oar-weed, 

 •or over the waving slopes of the bright green Ulva, or 

 among the feathery branches of the crimson C eramiiamf 



