Objects of Interest on the Sea Shore. 129 



at will, and could soon replace it by another. Instances had 

 been known where the discarded limb produced for itself four 

 other limbs and a mouth and stomach, and became a complete 

 star fish. When trawling in fine weather in summer it was not 

 an uncommon thing to find the net full of jelly fish when it came 

 to the surface, as these creatures were numerous in the Solway. 

 Sometimes it was necessary to cut a hole or bale '^hem out with a 

 bucket before the net could be lifted on board. It was commonly 

 thought that all jelly fish stung, but as a matter of fact most of 

 them were quite harmless, one or two varieties only being dan- 

 gerous. All jelly fish with a reddish tinge should be avoided, 

 for these were the most poisonous. Though he had frequently 

 been amongst jelly fish of various kinds, and had had occasion to 

 handle large quantities in the dark when clearing a trawl net, he 

 had never been stung, and he was inclined to think that it was 

 possible some people were more susceptible to the poison than 

 others, for many of the fishermen suffered considerably. When 

 seen swimming in the sea jelly fish were very beautiful. Of all 

 animals they were those which contained the least solid substance, 

 their bodies containing scarcely anything but water, confined by a 

 thin outer skin. Some species were phosphorescent. The shell 

 fish to be found on the shore was most interesting. Those which 

 most readily caught the eye were the whelks. Their shell was 

 thick and strong, and Nature seemed to have been at some pains 

 to ornament it not only in regard to its markings, but also its 

 shape. So far as he could see, the strange but handsome shape 

 of the shell was of no particular use. The care which Nature 

 took to decorate her creatures with beauty in some form or other 

 was very noticeable ; and when it occurred, as it frequently did, 

 amongst the lower forms of life, as well as the higher, one could 

 only conclude that beauty was an important part in a scheme of 

 existence of which we would gladly know more. The sombre 

 hue of the periwinkle, with its eminently practical and utilitarian 

 shell, had no very obvious beauty till one examined it with a 

 strong magnifying glass, and then it became at once apparent. 

 More wonderful and incomprehensible still was this hidden 

 beauty, so tremendous in detail, so wonderfully exact, that one's 

 admiration for the care which had produced it was mingled with 

 the question, why? It was a question which confronted the 



