251 



several points by half-an-hour's easy walk ? Ah ! 

 gentle reader, I '11 whisper a secret in your ear ; but 

 don't tell that I said so, for 'tis high treason against 

 the ladies. Since the opening of sea-science to the 

 million, such has been the invasion of the shore by 

 crinoline and collecting jars, that you may search all 

 the likely and promising rocks within reach of Tor- 

 quay, which a few years ago were like gardens with 

 full -blossomed anemones and autheas, and come 

 home with an empty jar and an aching heart, all 

 being now swept as clean as the palm of your hand ! 

 Yet let me do the fair students and their officious 

 beaux justice : the work is not altogether done by 

 such hands as theirs ; but there is a host of profes- 

 sional collectors, small tradesmen whom you must 

 search-up in back alleys, and whose houses you will 

 easily recognize by the sea-weedy odour, even before 

 you see the array of pans and dishes in front of the 

 door all crowded with full-blown specimens. These 

 collect for the trade, and are indefatigable. Only 

 think of the effect produced on the marine population 

 by three or four men in a town, one of whom will 

 take ten dozen anemones in a single tide ! 



The fact is, the fashionable watering-places on our 

 south and west coasts are completely stripped ; and 

 any one who really wishes to find anything worth 

 having, must seek some quiet, undisturbed sea-nook, 

 where there are no visitors, where the new trade has 

 not yet been set up, and where the poor people are 

 too primitive to notice such " rubbish " as you value. 



