intense in tone than were the colors of the cliffs 

 and of the glittering sand around and about. Here 

 high lights of brilliant orange flecked shadows of 

 violet and mauve, glaring forth in the ever-in- 

 creasing sunlight garishly, like those of tinsel or 

 gauds. Below, as if it were one great solid expanse 

 of emerald, lay the silent sea. 



Already our collecting-buckets were laden to 

 overflowing. It was with a measure of relief, then, 

 after constant stoopings to turn up some animal 

 hiding under a stone, and after frequent bendings 

 over likely flotsam imbedded in the silt, that we 

 paused beside a shallow tide pool to sort our ma- 

 terial — to separate into smaller containers those 

 of the more delicate creatures whose company with 

 the clumsy and heavier specimens, such as crabs or 

 encrusted rocks, would result in harm. 



Our work proceeded apace with the sun, for 

 there was still much collecting to be done before 

 the day was many hours older when the tide was 

 due to return, thus making further hunting im- 

 possible. But we never returned to the water's edge 

 to complete our intended task . . . 



It was my Faithful Assistant who first detected 

 the teeming life in the tide pool near which we 



[149] 



