THE SEA AND ITS SHORES. 13 



fore, be content to read with delight of their results ; but great 

 numbers of us make our annual pilgrimage to the sea-shore, 

 and, if we will, may learn much of its wonders and beauties 

 without running into danger, experiencing the discomfort of 

 sea-sickness, or risking more than the wetting of a foot. 



In the present volume it is the author's desire to act as a 

 friendly go-between, introducing the unscientific sea-side visitor 

 to a large number of the wonderful and interesting creatures 

 of the rocks, the sands, and the shingle beach. Some may 

 think this a work of supererogation, for already many volumes 

 have been issued with a similar object. It is true that there 

 are a number of manuals upon the wonders and the common 

 objects of the shore, but the best are out-of-date or out-of-print, 

 and the recent ones are such shocking examples of bookmaking 

 without much knowledge of the subject in hand, that the prac- 

 tical 'long-shore naturalist smiles and writhes alternately as he 

 turns their pages. Whatever else the present effort may lack, 

 I claim for it this merit, that it has been written in close contact 

 with the things it describes not only of cabinet specimens, 

 but of the living creatures under natural conditions. There is 

 not a line in the whole volume that has not been written within 

 a few yards of, and in full view of the rocks where the waves 

 forever break, sometimes gently with a low murmuring, almost 

 a whisper; at other times rearing their white crests a mile 

 away, then sweeping across the bay, flinging their malachite 

 curves upon the rocks with giant force and thunderous roar, 

 whilst the foam flakes flying high tap softly at my window. 



As far as possible I have dealt with the fauna of the rocky 

 shore separately from that of the sands or the shingly beach, 

 but it must be understood that in Nature the reis a good deal 

 of overlapping. It will also be no surprise to the reader 

 that the rocky shore bulks more largely in these pages than 

 sand or shingle; the rocks with their cracks and caves and 

 pools affording protection to many delicate organisms against 

 the fury of the waves. 



