276 NOVEMBER. 



pocket of man in the market, as anything but mere 

 rubbish not worth a second glance, or something hurtful 

 or nasty to be crushed beneath the heel. Or if, per- 

 chance, an observer of nature's beauties be engaged in 

 such an occupation, his time would be so fully taken up 

 with his urgent duties, as to preclude attention to such 

 amenities. Besides which, the loads of enormous blocks 

 of stone already shot down on the sea-floor, which he 

 is there to arrange and settle, must pretty well have 

 smashed and covered everything which had revelled in 

 dull enjoyment there, before his arrival. Still I fancy 

 I should like to borrow his diving-bell on a holiday, 

 and roam a little beyond those wildernesses of broken 

 stone, picking up treasures here and there such as the 

 scraper of the dredge has never yet been able to gather 

 out of the crevices and crannies of those deep-water 

 rocks. 



But such a desire is at present hopeless; and we 

 must be satisfied with such resources as are at our 

 command, thankful that the dredge, and the trawl, and 

 the keer-drag, the fisherman's deep-sea line, the lobster- 

 pot, and the sounding-lead are all contributing to our 

 acquaintance with the curious, the uncouth, the won- 

 drous, the beautiful, that lurk far down in profundis. 



Let us then go back to the results of our dredging 

 day that we so much enjoyed a few weeks ago. A 



