146 GLAUCUS ; OR, 
marks ; and everywhere—except in those of the 
highest level, where constant exposure to light 
dwarfs the plant, and turns it of a dull umber- 
brown tint—it is elegant in form and brilliant in 
colour. The expanding fan-shaped fronds, cut into 
segments, cut, and cut again, make fine bushy tufts 
in a deep pool, and every segment of every frond 
reflects a flush of the most lustrous azure, like that 
of a tempered sword-blade.” — Gosse’s Devonshire 
Coast, pp. 187—189. 
And the sea-bottom, also, has its zones, at different 
depths, and its peculiar forms in peculiar spots, 
affected by the currents and the nature of the ground, 
the riches of which have to be seen, alas! rather by 
the imagination than the eye; for such spoonfuls of 
the treasure as the dredge brings up to us, come too 
often rolled and battered, torn from their sites and 
contracted by fear, mere hints to us of what the 
populous reality below is ike. Often, standing on 
the shore at low tide, has one longed to walk on 
and in under the waves, as the water-ousel does in 
the pools of the mountain burn, and see it all but for 
