122 THE SEA. 



It is to the moderns we must look for anything like scientific study of these lower forms 

 of Nature. The later poets, too, have caught the spirit of the age, and in some phases their 

 utterances are artistically truer, and therefore truer to nature, than those of the merely hard 

 scientists. Crabbe has beautifully described this boon of our age, the study of Nature 

 aided by the light of science. It is nowadays the privilege as well as it is to the profit 

 of any intelligent person 



" The ocean's produce to explore. 



As floating by, or rolling on the shore, 



Those living jellies which the flesh inflame, 



Fierce as a nettle, and from that their name : 



Some in huge masses, some that you may bring; 



In the small compass of a lady's ring ; 



Figured by hand Divine there's not a gem 



Wrought by man's art to be compared to them ; 



Soft, brilliant, tender, through the wave they glow, 



And make the moonbeams brighter where they flow. 



Involved in sea-wrack, hero you find a race 



Which science doubting, knows not where to place. 



On shell or stone is dropped the embryo seed, 



And quickly vegetates a vital breed ; 



While thus with pleasing wonder you inspect 



Treasures the vulgar in their scorn reject." 



CHAPTER XI. 

 THE OCEAN AND ITS LIVING WONDERS (continued). 



The Madrepores Brain, Mushroom, and Plantain Coral The Beautiful Sea-anemones; their Organisation and Habits; their 

 Insatiable Voracity The Gorgons Echinodermata The Star-flsh-Sea Urchins Wonderful Shell and Spines An 

 Urchin's Prayer The Sea Cucumber -The Trepang, or Holothuria Trepang Fishing Dumont d'Urville's Description 

 The Commerce in this Edible The Molluscs The Teredo, or Ship-worm Their Ravages on the Holland Coast The 

 Retiring Razor-fish The Edible Mussel History of their Cultivation in France The Bouchots- Occasional Danger 

 of Eating Mussels The Prince of Bivalves The Oyster and its Organisation Difference in Size American Oysters 

 High Priced in some Cities Quantity Consumed in London- Courteous Exchange Roman Estimation of them The 

 " Breedy Creatures " brought from Britain Vitellius and his Hundred Dozen A Sell : Poor Tyacke The First Man 

 who Ate an Oyster The Fisheries- Destructive Dredging Lake Fusaro and the Oyster Parks Scientific Cultivation 

 in France Success and Profits The Whitstable and other Beds System pursued. 



AMONG the interesting and comparatively familiar forms of ocean's treasures must be counted 

 the Madrepores, often regarded as corals, but quite distinct as a scientific group from the 

 precious coral of commerce. The Madreporida; are very numerous, and are formed by colonies 

 of polyps. The poet has truly described them : 



" I saw the living pile ascend 

 The mausoleum of its architects, 

 Still dying upward as their labour closed : 

 Slime the material, but the slime was turned 

 To adamant by their petrific touch." 



