274 GOBY HUNTING. 



a dense forest of sea-weed, shewing that they have 

 been undisturbed for some months at least. There 

 should be little else than such blocks as these, lying 

 one on another, so as to leave clear the narrow cavi- 

 ties beneath, through which the sea may play; for 

 stones, however inviting they may look on their upper 

 surface, are next to worthless if they are imbedded in 

 sand or fine shingle. It is not by any means every 

 beach that yields the necessary conditions ; some 

 beaches are all sand; these have their own proper 

 creatures ; a sand-beach is not at all barren of animal 

 life, but it does not give us what the stones yield. 

 Others are all shingle, made up of smooth, sea- 

 washed, rounded pebbles, from the size of a marble 

 to that of a turkey's egg, which ever roll over one 

 another, with a whispering sound, as the surf runs 

 in : these are utterly barren ; the very worst of all 

 localities for the marine naturalist to try his fortune ; 

 the small size of the stones renders them so movable 

 that nothing can adhere to them with permanence, 

 and they afford, for the same reason, no available 

 shelter for darkness-loving creatures ! A mixture of 

 large stones with shingle is but little better ; for the 

 pebbles wash in and out between the heavy stones, 

 and not only fill up the interstices, but, by rolling 

 and rubbing, effectually clear their surfaces of all 

 adventurous atoms, animal or vegetable, which might 

 essay to take up a residence upon them. Often, how- 

 ever, a beach, which presents nothing but unmixed 

 shingle from below half-tide level to highwater mark, 



