24 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



sickness, sometimes death ; and pregnant women were 

 especially warned against it. Apuleius happened to 

 have a curiosity about this animal, for which he was 

 accused of magic* On every coast the fishermen who 

 happen to know anything about the Sea-hare (and 

 they know very little of animals they do not sell), 

 assure you of its poisonous qualities ; and the bright 

 purple fluid it throws out, when irritated, although 

 perfectly harmless, may well excite the suspicion of the 

 ignorant. Whenever you find one crawling on the sea- 

 weed, or left stranded by the retiring tide, carry it 

 home and study it. Few molluscs are so easy to 

 dissect ; and the attention of anatomists will profit- 

 ably be directed to it, because several errors are 

 stereotyped in our treatises, which prove that, since 

 Cuvier, few have minutely examined its structure. 



But to return to our hunt. We place these Sea- 

 hares in a small jar by themselves, and quickly add 

 thereto a broad white ribbon of tiniest beads, which is 

 coiled up against the under side of the ledge, and 

 which we see with joy to be the spawn of the Doris — 

 another sea-slug, if a name so ugly as that can properly 

 be applied to a creature so attractive. — (Plate II., fig. 

 2.) Keally this pool is enchanting ! How gracefully 

 the Polypes wave from its sides, like fairy fir-trees in 

 the summer air. The longer we look, the more beauties 



* Dans sa defense, Apul^e repondit qu'en effet il avait observe des 

 lievres marins, mais seulement dans le but de satisfaire une curiosite qui 

 n'offrait rien de condamnable. La description qu'il donne de petits 

 osselets existans dans restomac de ces animaux, prouve qu'il les avait 

 observes en naturaliste. — Cuvier, Hist, des Sciences Naturdles, i. 287. 



