16 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



months at the coast, under proper conditions, will make 

 us acquainted with all, or almost all, the principal 

 forms of life ; and where so much is still to be ob- 

 served, each may hope to contribute something new to 

 the general stock, and thus all be benefited. 



A very few days of resolute study sufficed to substi- 

 tute definite ideas for that haze which necessarily over- 

 hangs mere book-knowledge, and repeated failures 

 helped to educate both eye and mind in the art of find- 

 ing animals, and of identifying them. At first, not 

 only did I mistake sea-weeds for polypes, but instead 

 of filling jars and phials with ease, as anticipation 

 had prefigured, I often came home with very meagre 

 results — and this in a place abounding in treasm-es. 

 The truth is, one has to learn many little details about 

 the animals — where to look for them, how to see them 

 when there, and how to secure them when seen — before 

 one's basket returns home well stocked. Luck is 

 something, of course : if there is only one bunch of 

 sea-grapes (eggs of the cuttle-fish) thrown on shore, 

 only one person can bag it. But it is the knowingest 

 hunters that are the luckiest. They know how to 

 profit by good fortune. You may perhaj^s be inter- 

 ested if I sketch a day's hunting, and into it condense 

 most of the details, the knowledge of which may abridge 

 your own labours, and increase your success on taking 

 to the sport. 



It is spring-tide. Little or nothing can be done 

 during neap-tides, because it is among the rocks near 

 extreme low-water that the prizes are found. The 



