LIFE ON SEA-EOCKS. 71 



as they can be packed. Every tiny crevice, eveiy 

 hollow, every hole left by Pholas or Saxicava (and the 

 rock is riddled and honeycombed by these burrowing 

 mollusks), holds its little knob of plump flesh ; some 

 lolling out with a dewdrop hanging from the end ; some 

 just filling the cavity, and allowing the tips of the 

 crowded tentacles to peep out as a speck of white, or 

 of orange, or of rosy lilac, according to the species ; and 

 some retreated to the bottom of their stony fortress, to 

 be detected only by the probing touch. Other forms 

 too there are ; dead men's fingers, white and yellow ; 

 worms, green and brown and grey, twining in and out, 

 and grasping the sharp edges of the rock; tunicate 

 mollusks, simple and compound; univalves and bivalves; 

 sponges of all bright colours by hundreds : what a 

 maze, what a teeming world of life it is ! 



All this is at and above the level of the eye. Now 

 let us bend over the boat's gunwale, and gaze below, 

 with our faces brought nearly to the surface of the sea. 

 Here the sight is far more wonderful, and far more 

 attractive; for here the life is seen in all its fullest 

 activity, every creature performing its functions, and 

 pursuing its instincts with the most single earnestness, 

 self-contained, and altogether regardless of the myriad 

 fellow-beings that surround it and press upon it, in this 

 eager contest and struggle for maintained existence. 



