THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 77 
dead low spring-tide ; and ere we go home, we will 
spend a few minutes at least on the rocks at Liver- 
mead, where awaits us a strong-backed quarryman, 
with a strong-backed crowbar, as is to be hoped 
(for he snapped one right across there yesterday, 
falling miserably on his back into a pool thereby), 
and we will verify Mr. Gosse’s observation, that— 
“When once we have begun to look with curi- 
osity on the strange things that ordinary people 
pass over without notice, our wonder is continually 
excited by the variety of phase, and often by the 
uncouthness of form, under which some of the 
meaner creatures are presented to us. And this 
is very specially the case with the inhabitants of 
the sea. We can scarcely poke or pry for an hour 
among the rocks, at low-water mark, or walk, with 
an observant downcast eye, along the beach after a 
gale, without finding some oddly-fashioned, suspi- 
cious-looking being, unlike any form of life that 
we have seen before. The dark concealed interior 
of the sea becomes thus invested with a fresh mys- 
tery; its vast recesses appear to be stored with all 
