IS2 



NATURE'S CALENDAR 



August 14 



of the Southern States, New Jersey, Long 

 Island, and Cape Cod and its outlying 

 islands, is the poorest of all places to look 

 for sea animals or plants, and yet a stroller 

 will find many things to attract his eye. 

 Such beaches slope out very gradually be- 

 neath the water in a plain of ever-shifting 

 sand, where few sea-weeds can keep a root- 

 hold. Consequently — as marine as well as 

 terrestrial life (apart from fishes) depends 

 upon vegetation — the variety of animal 

 life that can obtain a living upon such a 

 desert is small, and what is there exists 

 mainly by the aid of certain outlying reefs 

 of rocks clothed with sKibmarine plants. 



Up where the high tide or storm waves 

 have left them lie sinuous rows of dead 

 eel-grass and various red sea-weeds, at- 

 tached to shells and pebbles that have 

 gone adn'ft ; and mixed among these, or 

 scattered over the smoother part of the 

 beach, are the remains of crabs and fishes, 

 shells of mollusks, bits of sponges, and 

 various minor creatures. 



Of the sea-urchins one sees none south 

 of the rocky shores of Massachusetts, ex- 

 cept the flat sand dollars washed up from 

 deep waters ; and starfishes are uncom- 

 mon south of Sandy Hook, though al- 

 together too numerous all round Long 

 Island, where they increase with the 

 growth of the oyster-beds. 



Crabs are of familiar sorts for the most 

 part, but the largest and smallest will in- 

 terest inlanders. The former is the great 



August IS 



