FIRST ATTEMPTS. 13 



diameter, to which is fastened a canvass bag, makes a 

 convenient little net to be used in pools too small to 

 admit the landing-net. 



The brief note in my journal which records the re- 

 sults of my first visit always amuses me when it catches 

 my eye : " On the rocks. Found some Actiniae and 

 Serpulse." The idea oi finding Serpulse will make the 

 amateur smile as he remembers how difficult it is to 

 avoid these swarming Annelids, whose shells, sharp as 

 lancets, cut the hands in fifty different places before 

 many stones are turned ; but to my inexperienced eye 

 there were only the empty shells of Serpulae to be 

 found, until I came upon some in the water with their 

 little fans expanded, and these were pounced on with 

 great eagerness. The Actiniae spoken of were the com- 

 mon Smooth Anemone — not even the Strawberry 

 variety — (if you will face a long name, it is Mesemhry- 

 anthemum) — and these which I bagged with great 

 glee, I soon learned to pass by with no more regard 

 than if they had been sea-weed. So much of our 

 enjoyment depends on the difficulty of obtaining it, 

 that these Actiniae, which I still hold to be exquisitely 

 beautiful, and far more intrinsically beautiful than 

 very many of the rare species, to obtain which one 

 nearly dislocates one's limbs, wriggling through cre- 

 vices, or runs a risk of " catching one's death " by 

 standing in a pool dripped on from a thousand orifices 

 above — these Actinias, I say, are left untouched be- 

 cause they are abundant, and do not demand the 

 chisel. Perverse, ungrateful human nature ! What 



