212 SEA- SIDE STUDIES. 



led me here, to the shores of that ocean which Homer, 

 "the paragon of philosophers," as Eabelais calls him, 

 very miphilosophically styles "unfruitful," are^ygro?. 

 Barren it may have been to him, poor fellow, unable to 

 use the microscope (he was blind, you know !) yet even 

 he had intellectual vision enough to see that it was 

 [lija-AYiTYiZ^ "abounding in marvels ;'' and he was not a 

 man to pause open-mouthed at a slight deviation from 

 ordinary appearances, as may be gathered from this 

 single example : when Helen passes through the gates 

 of Troy, under the eyes of Ucalegon and Antenor, those 

 venerable and inspired men are by Homer seen to be 

 "like cicadse chirping on the trees" — surely a very 

 strange phenomenon ? — and as if this were not enough, 

 their chirp is said to have a lily - like sound — o-^a 

 Asimsffffav — surely a strange intonation ? If, there- 

 fore, to Homer, familiar with sights and sounds so 

 unusual, the sea could nevertheless be held as abound- 

 ing in marvels, judge what it abounds in for our more 

 easily astonished minds. 



Come with me to the rocks, on my first visit after 

 arrival. The tide is not a very good one,- but in a few 

 minutes we discover that we are in the land of marvels. 

 Here are the snaky-armed^?z^/ieas in abundance : green 

 with ravishing pink tips ; brown with silver-grey ten- 

 tacles ; and a few of quaker drab. Presently a noble 

 Crassicornis reveals himself in a cleft — impossible to 

 get at, unfortunately. But in few minutes another, 

 then another, then a group, at last such quantities of 

 them make theu: appearance, that the heart palpitates 



