ZOOPHYTES. 325 



CHAPTER XVni. 



ZOOPHYTES. 



IT is pleasant to go down to the shore on a bright autumnal 

 morning at low water, when the tide has receded far, ex- 

 posing great areas of wet sand and wildernesses of rugged 

 rocks draped with black and red weed. It is pleasant to 

 make our way on cautious foot round some frowning point 

 whose base is usually beaten by the billows ; to travel 

 among the slippery boulders, now leaping from one to 

 another, now winding between them, now creeping under 

 their beetling roofs ; to penetrate where we have never 

 ventured before, and to explore with a feeling of undefined 

 awe the wild solitudes where the hollow sea growls, and the 

 grey gull wails. It is pleasant to get under the shadow of 

 the tall elifis of limestone, to creep into low, arching caves, 

 and there to stoop and peer into the dark pools, which lie 

 filled to the brim with water as clear as crystal, and as un- 

 ruffled as a well. What little worlds are these rugged 

 basins I How full of life all unsuspected by the rude 

 stone-cutter that daily trudges by them to and from his 

 work in the marble quarry of the cliff above ! What arts, 

 and wiles, and stratagems are being practised there ! what 

 struggles for mastery, for food, for life ! what pursuits and 

 flights ! what pleasant gambols ! what conjugal and pa- 

 rental affections ! what varied enjoyments ! what births ! 

 what deaths ! are every hour going on in these unruffled 

 wells, beneath the brown shadow of the umbrageous oar- 

 weed, or over the waving slopes of the bright green Ulva, 

 or among the feathery branches of the crimson Ceramium ! 



