DWELLERS OF THE SURF 123 



lived in swarms about the edges. These last were so utterly 

 beautiful, so translucent and frail in their structure as to be 

 almost unbelievable. From the tips of their tentacles to the base 

 of their cylindrical bodies they were soft mouse color, a neu- 

 tral tone that derived its beauty from the shine of golden sun- 

 light through clear tissue. The larger pink anemones were 

 somewhat garish in their aspect, but these smaller ones were 

 loveliness in monotone. They belonged to the peculiar group 

 that believed in passive resistance, and with every motion of the 

 water their long filamentous tentacles swayed back and forth, 

 quivering and swirling. Although they were completely re- 

 siHent, so perfectly designed was their anatomy that never at 

 any moment did they assume an awkward position; complete 

 gracefulness was their most conspicuous characteristic. 



When I first became interested in them the tide was hi^h 



o 



and their bodies were being constantly bathed in the upper- 

 most ripples of the breakers; when I again looked for them the 

 water had dropped several feet, leaving them dry and helpless. 

 Their forms were nowhere to be found but in their places were 

 a number of disks of dark fleshy matter hardly one-fifth the 

 bulk of the original animals. When I ran my finger over them, 

 they felt thick and rubbery. It seemed, impossible that these 

 shapeless masses could be the beautiful creations of several 

 hours past. I prodded one with a knife and it split open and 

 oozed a mass of turgid Hquid. Later when I again examined 

 them they had shrunk still further. The hot sun beamed down 

 and all life appeared to have gone out of them. 



Yet when the tide came in again at four in the afternoon 

 they were all out in flower again, as delicate and wraith-like 

 as ever. This was a very wonderful thing; for nearly six hours 

 these ocean-born creatures had been subjected to the dry air 

 and blistering heat, conditions for which they had never been 



