THE SCHOOL OF THE SHORE 13 



and-fast statements by the fact that there is a 

 frog at Manilla which is often seen hopping 

 about on the shore. 



FISHES. The shore-fishes are legion, but 

 some are more characteristic than others. One 

 of these is the Gunnel or Butterfish (Centra- 

 notus gunnellus), so extraordinarily difficult to 

 catch because of its power of insinuating itself 

 between the stones and into crevices, so extra- 

 ordinarily difficult to hold when one has caught 

 it, such is its slipperiness. The father-lasher 

 and the sand-eel, the cock-paidle and the 

 stickleback are also common on the shore. 



SEA-SQUIRTS. Fastened to the long flag-like 

 seaweeds there are often groups of Ascidians 

 or Sea-Squirts, strange degenerate creatures 

 which cross the frontier into the backboned 

 sub-kingdom in their free-swimming youth, but 

 sink back again, as it were, when they grow up 

 and settle down. On the stones at low tide 

 there are often very beautiful colonies of com- 

 pound Ascidians or Tunicates, quite jewel-like 

 sometimes in their fine colouring. 



MOLLUSCS. Highest in a way among back- 

 boneless or Invertebrate animals are the 



