THE SCHOOL OF THE SHORE 27 



to fit. It is curious, too, to see the American 

 Slipper- Limpet (Crepidula) one growing on 

 the top of another to the number of four or 

 five suggestive of the root-idea of a sky- 

 scraper." It is very interesting to take a stone 

 from a deep pool, or from the floor of the sea 

 in shallow water further out, to see how many 

 different kinds of creatures take advantage of 

 this pedestal. One stone from Clare Island 

 bore fourteen different kinds of " moss-animals " 

 or Polyzoa. 



Truly, the shore is a place of struggle. Is 

 there any other haunt where we see so clearly 

 the truth of Tennyson's words 



"That life is not as idle ore, 

 But iron dug from central gloom, 

 And heated hot with burning fears, 

 And dipt in baths of hissing tears, 

 And batter'd with the shocks of doom 



To shape and use." 



In Memoriam. 



Some one said long ago that a great part of 

 life is connected with the conjugation of the 

 verb : To eat ; and we realise how true this is 

 when we study the life of the shore. " I eat, 

 thou eatest, he eats . . . they eat." " I shall 

 eat . . . they shall eat." " I have eaten . . . 

 they have eaten." "They have been eaten." 



