CHAPTER XXII 



THE STRANGE HISTORY OF THE TADPOLES 

 OF THE SEA 



THERE are many strange and curious animals thrown 

 up in quantities on the seashore after storms which 

 an observant wanderer may pick up as he strolls along 

 the sand. The subsiding waves, one after another, briskly 

 flow to his feet, and deliver a little sample of the weeds 

 and other growths uprooted in shallow depths beyond the 

 low-tide mark. For the big waves of a stormy sea are 

 not merely surface appearances ; they tear and rend the 

 sea bottom of the shallow water beyond the line of 

 " breakers," dislodging all sorts of adherent animals from 

 the hidden rocks, and even turning over the sandy bottom 

 in which burrowing worms, as a rule, remain safely housed, 

 but are now carried helplessly along by the force of the 

 deep hidden disturbance, and thrown alive on to the 

 beach. Many a rare prize is thus obtained by the 

 naturalist, for the waves will search and bring the spoil to 

 shore from submarine rock-clefts and sand-beds into 

 which the " dredge " cannot penetrate. 



Common objects on the storm-strewn shore are oval, 

 rough, but translucent sacs, as big as one's thumb, colour- 

 less and of fleshy texture (Fig. 31). Sometimes they are 

 attached to bits of weed, but usually are free, though 

 the broken appearance of one end shows them to have 

 been dislodged from attachment to rocks by the force of 



