i88 



NATURE'S CALENDAR 



August 25 which, the Melampus, is a land shell 



— rather than a sea snail. 



A rocky coast, hovvev^er, is far more in- 

 teresting to the maritime naturalist, be- 

 cause a much greater variety of animals 

 and plants are to be found there. Rocky, 

 weedy bottoms and shores are met with 

 in Long Island Sound, and about Narra- 

 gansett and Buzzard's bays, and prevail 

 north of Boston, where Cape Ann and the 

 coast of Maine are grand hunting-grounds 

 for the marine zoologist. The abundance 

 of crustacean and moll-uscan life about 

 such places attracts the fishes that feed 

 upon them, so that nowhere are tautog, 

 striped bass, black bass, cunners, etc., more 

 numerous than in the neighborhood of 

 weed-grown reefs. 



South of Cape Cod rocky reefs and 

 shores are covered between tide-marks 

 with rock-weeds {Fiiciis), " which hang in 

 great olive-brown clusters from the sides 

 of the rocks or lie flat upon their surfaces 

 when left by the tide, but are floated up 

 by means of abundant air-vessels when 

 the tide rises." Mingled with these are 

 several other algae, among which the 

 green "sea-cabbage" {Ulva) is one of the 

 most abundant. Below this zone of Fucus 

 there is a narrow zone, which is only ex- 

 posed during spring -tides; in this the 

 Ulva and many other more delicate green 

 and red alg?e flourish. These subaqueous 

 forests and the pools left among the rocks 

 by the daily retreat of the waters are pop- 



