TANGLE FORESTS. 67 



be much more prolific in strange and beautiful forms of 

 life. Harry shall pull us round yonder low point, which 

 bears the appellation of Hope's Nose, calling on the way 

 to look at some one of the inlets that lie between the 

 long projecting points at the foot of Black Bock. Here 

 the boat floats over dense forests of great brown sea- 

 weeds, the Laminarice, which lift their dark masses, and 

 wave to and fro, with a majestic dignity. Here is the 

 narrow crumpled blade of the Oarweed, of a rich yellow 

 brown ; and the wavy stem of the Furbelows springing 

 from its hedgehog-like bladder ; but chiefly is the forest 

 composed of vast plants of the Tangle, whose broad 

 deep-brown fronds of a substance like stout leather, 

 French-polished, divide into many long straps, slide 

 over each other, and flap to and fro in the heave of the 

 sea. Yonder we see on the broadest part of a frond, 

 just before it divides, what seems a flower, as large as a 

 chrysanthemum, but of the liveliest pea-green hue, every 

 long petal tipped with rosy pink. Hand over the boat- 

 hook, and carefully lift the tangle to the surface. Now 

 we have it fully in view. It is the green variety of the 

 Opelet j 1 so called because it is scarcely capable of in- 

 folding the walls of the body over the disk and ten- 

 tacles ; these therefore remain habitually open, though 



i Anthea cereus, var. smaragdina, represented at the right hand of 

 Plate ix. 



