THE SCHOOL OF THE SHORE 25 



habit much for protection, for their thick, hard 

 shell covers the gills and prevents evaporation ; 

 they are sufficiently active to be able to get to 

 a pool or a sheltered crevice under a rock 

 whenever occasion arises ; and their strong 

 claws and pugnacious spirit are enough to 

 keep off most enemies except still bigger crabs. 

 Some of the other members of the family, 

 however, such as the burrowing prawns, 

 tunnel in the sand near low-tide mark, and live 

 an almost underground life. 



THE STRUGGLE OF THE SHORE 



A haunt with a crowded population of all 

 sorts and sizes, a haunt where the most 

 constant thing is change, a haunt bristling 

 with difficulties and hemmed in by limitations ; 

 there is bound to be much struggle on the 

 shore. But we should try to make it clear 

 to ourselves that the " struggle for existence" 

 is a technical phrase which includes much 

 more than a life-and-death competition around 

 the platter, much more than what we get a 

 symbol of when the pigs elbow and jostle one 

 another at the feeding-trough ; it includes all 

 the answers-back that living creatures make 



