THE SCHOOL OF THE SHORE 27 



grown to fit. It is curious, too, to see the 

 American Slipper-Limpet (Crepldula) one 

 growing on the top of another to the number 

 of four or five suggestive of the root-idea of 

 a sky-scraper." It is very interesting to take 

 a stone from a deep pool, or from the floor of 

 the sea in shallow water further out, to see 

 how many different kinds of creatures take 

 advantage of this pedestal. One stone from 

 Clare Island bore fourteen different kinds of 

 "moss-animals" or Polyzoa. 



Truly, the shore is a place of struggle. Is 

 there any other haunt where we see so clearly 

 the truth of Tennyson's words 



" That life is not as idle ore, 

 But iron dug from central gloom, 

 And heated hot with burning fears, 



And dipt in baths of hissing tears, 

 And batter'd with the shocks of doom 

 To shape and use." 



In Memoriam. 



Some one said long ago that a great part of 

 life is connected with the conjugation of the 

 verb: To eat; and we realise how true this is 

 when we study the life of the shore. " I eat, 

 thou eatest, he eats . . . they eat." " I shall 

 eat ... they shall eat" " I have eaten . . . 

 they have eaten." "They have been eaten." 



