BEAUTIES OF THE SEA. 7 



But we see no mermaids here, though there is 

 plenty of life. Here is a huge arching rock, and 

 under it is a pool of the clearest sea- water. 



We stretch ourselves upon the soft moss, and partly 

 enter the charmed grotto. In the pool are a few 

 bright fishes, which dart round their little ocean, 

 evidently alarmed by our presence. As they swim 

 through the shallow water, they brush against the 

 slender mosses, which wave to and fro and display 

 their graceful forms ; or perhaps they touch the frond 

 of an irridescent sea-weed, which, as it moves, reveals 

 its beautiful colors. 



On the bottom, or attached to the sides of the 

 stones, are star-fishes of brilliant and varied hues — red, 

 yellow, purple and brown — contrasting strongly with 

 the green sea-grass, and making it seem as if the sky 

 had last night sent a shower of stars into the ocean, 

 and some of them had been left when the tide ebbed 

 away. 



Brilliant patches of living sponge — scarlet, orange, 

 or drab — paint the dark rocks ; colonies of lace-like 

 polyzoans are scattered over the stones and old 

 shells ; pretty sea-snails are creeping slowly along the 

 roof of our grotto, or quietly waiting, with all imagin- 

 able patience, for the return of the tide ; strange tuni- 

 cates and other low forms of animal life add to the 

 beauty of./orm and color, and excite our curiosity 

 to know what they are and how they live ; sea- 

 anemones — those living flowers — open their tube-like 

 petals and glow in the morning light ; and a host of 

 other things, "creeping innumerable " — all welcome 

 us to this beautiful home in the sea. 



Our liveliest hosts are the little crabs, which 

 scamper off sidewise, backwards, forwards, or in any 



