18 NEW SPECIES AND GENERA. 



single, unassisted individual would require the eyes of 

 an Argxis, and the hands and heads of a Briareus, to 

 bring together the mass of facts and observations con- 

 tained in one of these monographs. Such works pre- 

 suppose the examination of every part of our coasts at 

 all seasons of the year. It falls to no man's lot to make 

 such extensive investigations. But the results of the 

 common labours of many individuals scattered along 

 the shore, concentrated in the author's study, accom- 

 plish the work far more rapidly and more perfectly 

 than could possibly be done by any other means. Not- 

 withstanding all that has been done of late years, the 

 subject is yet very far from being exhausted. New 

 species and even new genera, are still continually met 

 with among both marine plants and animals on the 

 British coasts ; and this, not merely among the more 

 minute and obscure kinds, where such occurrences con- 

 stantly take place, but among the larger and more per- 

 fectly organized classes. The pleasure of adding a new 

 member, never before noticed by man, to the list of 

 known beings must, perhaps, be felt before it can be 

 understood. We experience, in some measure, a parental 

 fondness for an object which we have been the first to 

 bring to light : and with this often mixes a good slice 

 of self-complacency at our own wonderful acuteness. 

 This last feeling is often very silly, for, probably, it was 

 good luck more than sagacity which threw the object 

 in our way : and any one else of common observation, 

 might have acted his part as well. It is something to 

 have worked out a difficult problem requiring mental 

 exertion ; or to have been the first to distinguish accu- 



