290 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



gained, you will need no argument to prove the superi- 

 ority of a fishing- village. 



Comfortably settled at Gorey, and my working-room 

 set in order, I had only to await the spring-tide, once 

 more to gather a variety of pets around me. Not that 

 I was even then without serious occupation. Before 

 leaving Scilly I had put up my Nudibranchs in spirits " 

 of wine, and these were now carefully to be dissected. 

 Make no wry face at the word " dissection " — it indi- 

 cates a very different process from the one you conceive ; 

 and as it is one indispensable to the naturalist, I may 

 as well dissipate the prejudice which hangs over it. If 

 prejudices could be satisfactorily displaced by argument, 

 one might ask how a man can pass a butcher's shop 

 with equanimity, yet shudder at the idea of dissecting 

 a rabbit or a dog ; but I will admit all such incongrui- 

 ties as facts not assailable by argument, and simply 

 direct the reader's attention to the important differences 

 between dissecting animals of the larger kind, and dis- 

 secting our marine pets — it is as great as the difference 

 between knitting a silken purse in a drawing-room, and 

 making a ship's cable in a rope-walk. Almost all our 

 dissections are performed under water, with needles, 

 tweezers, and delicate scissors. There is no visible 

 blood to suggest unpleasant ideas ; there is nothing 

 unsightly — to the philosophic eye the sight is full of 

 interest — and if an unsightly aspect be present, has not 

 a noble poetess truly said : — 



" Be, rather, bold, and bear 

 To look into the swarthiest face of things 



