In a Sea-side Forest. 191 



showed that those most deeply buried in the 

 marshes contained no pottery or evidence of skil- 

 fully-worked stone, while those that are still above 

 the water-level do contain elaborately-wrought 

 implements. Further, here, as elsewhere, I doubt 

 not, if careful sections of the most extensive of 

 these shell deposits could be made, their bases 

 would show a lower stage of primitive art than is 

 found near their surfaces. And what of the shell- 

 heaps that have been washed away ? Thousands 

 of acres of habitable land have been engulfed. If 

 this was forested, as is the little island over which 

 I now wander, what a paradise for primitive man ! 

 To turn aside, when a wonderful forest is at 

 hand, and the ocean not a mile away, to consider 

 Nature's commonplaces, may startle or even dis- 

 gust ; but for me there is a never-ending charm in 

 the meandering meadow-mice that I cannot with- 

 stand. I found them on the margin of the 

 marshes, lively as ever on the home-pastures, but 

 here, how big, noisy, and rusty-coated they are ! 

 I scarcely knew them as bay-side dwellers; yet 

 the most inveterate species-monger would hardly 

 say they were not the same. They seemed to be 



