86 8EA.SE0RE DEPOSITS. 



the coast some few of the numberless beings which it car- 

 ries in its bosom. In the first moments of its retreat, the 

 naturalist may collect a crowd of substances, vegetable and 

 animal, of various characteristic color and properties. The 

 inhabitants of the coast may find there their food, their com- 

 merce, their occupations. 



At low water, the nearest villages and hamlets send their 

 contingents, old and young, to gather the riband seaweed, 

 a source of great wealth to the dwellers by the sea, being 

 much used in making kelp ; others gather the small shells 

 left on the sand ; boys mount upon the rocks in search of 

 whelks and of mussels, and detach limpets from the rocks to 

 which they attach themselves. 



On some coasts, shells are sought for their beauty. By 

 turning the stones, or by sounding the crevices of the rocks 

 with a hook at the end of a pole, cuttles and calmars are 

 sometimes surprised, sometimes even a young conger eel 

 which has sought refuge there ; while the pools, left here 

 and there by the retiring tide, are dragged by nets of very 

 small mesh, in which the smaller Crustacea, mollusks, and 

 small fish are secured. 



In the Mediterranean and other inland seas, where the 

 tide is almost inappreciable, there will be found to exist a 

 great number of animals and Algse belonging to the deep 

 sea, which the waves or currents very rarely leave upon 

 the sea-shore. There are others again so fugitive, or 

 which attach themselves so firmly to the rocks, that we can 

 watch them only in their habitats. It is necessary to study 

 them, floating on the surface of the waves, or in their mys- 

 terious retirements. 



" We find in the sea," says Lacepede, *' unity and divers- 

 ity, which constitutes its beauty ; grandeur and simplicity, 

 which give it sublimity ; puissance and immensity, which 

 command our wonder." 



