INTRODUCTORY 5 



In nomenclature, when more than one name has been 

 applied to the same organism, I shall employ the one most 

 generally in use, although recent revision may have made 

 alteration ; and as to classification, I shall simply proceed 

 from the lower to the higher groups, for the subject of strict 

 classification is still somewhat unsettled some authorities 

 placing as one division, or even as one group, what others 

 consider a subdivision of another. 



For the details of the subject of classification I shall 

 refer the reader to The Encyclopedia Britannica, where the 

 different systems are given in full. 



I am writing this on the coast of Jersey, in the Channel 

 Islands, a district proverbially rich in the variety of its 

 marine fauna, although, as far as I can judge, there are very 

 few forms that occur here that do not also occur on the 

 shores of Great Britain in general the reputation that 

 these islands hold in this respect being simply due to the 

 fact that many diverse geological conditions, each with its 

 accompanying forms of life, are here concentrated into a 

 limited area. 



Before me, as I write, stretches the Bay of St Clement, 

 a locality which has been my chief hunting-ground for 

 nearly twoscore years. It is composed as follows : 



First a stretch of fine white sand ; then a large expanse 

 of low-lying rocks, plentifully interspersed with rock pools, 

 both deep and shallow ; stretches of loose shelly sand ; 

 patches, many acres in extent, of Zostera or " sea-grass " ; 

 and clusters of tall rocks, with their bases densely clothed 

 with Fucus and Laminaria ; fallen blocks of stone, here 

 and there bridge dykes and gullies, forming small caves 

 and grottoes the whole affording, as I have said, a 

 great variety of conditions within easy reach of one 

 another. 



It may or may not be the good fortune of my young 

 reader to light upon a similar shore on his next seaside 



