IN THE SEA 185 



Then we see tops and whelk-shells scuttling 

 along the floor of the pool at too great a pace, 

 and discover the common but perpetually admir- 

 able hermit crabs. We take up a bunch of seaweed 

 and find that it grows on the back of a spider 

 crab, thus rendered invisible in its work among the 

 seaweed. Nay, we look at the seaweed and find 

 that it is not vegetable but animal, a colony of 

 coral-like animals that yield amazing comedies 

 and tragedies under the microscope. That scented, 

 fernlike thing, the flustra, is the best zoophyte to 

 begin with ; it reveals the first antechamber of 

 its infinite beauties to the pocket magnifying 

 glass. 



Fish are a surer attraction. We seldom approach 

 a pool so quietly as to see the blenny actually 

 sunning himself out of water. He has plopped 

 into his own element and gone to hide himself 

 under a stone, whence presently we disclose him 

 and have a most exciting chase round the pool. 

 He blows out his head into a most terrifying object, 

 glares with his garnet eye, expels his breath with 

 a loud pop, and if he has the chance gives you a 

 shrewd nip with his jaws. 



Another good fish to chase (forgetting all the 

 years that may be our misfortune) is the rock 

 goby, a smooth black brute with a shining white 

 throat and a distension of stomach that betrays 

 the typical sea appetite. And there is the serpent- 

 like gunnel, flattened from back to belly and 

 spotted with a fierce indigo that makes most 



