FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD 25 



recedes still farther, pools and miniature caverns appear, 

 edged with delicate feathery red-coloured seaweeds. 

 Many small fishes, shrimps of various kinds, some- 

 times pale rainbow-tinted " squids " (one of the more 

 delicate cuttle-fishes), are seen darting about the pools, 

 changing their colour with lightning rapidity. The 

 overhanging sides of the rock-pools give protection to 

 gorgeously-coloured " sea-anemones " adhering to them. 

 Here, also, are those exquisite ascidians — ill-described 

 by the rough name " sea-squirt " — hanging from the 

 rocks like drops of purest crystal in their transparency 

 — for which naturalists use the prettier title " Clavellina." 

 The nature-lover now turns one of the large flat slabs of 

 rock lying in such a pool — well knowing what loveliness 

 its under-side will reveal to his eyes. That under-side 

 is studded with a dozen or two of the most exquisite 

 gems of green and peach colour, ruby and yellow 

 (Corynactis by name !), which, if the slab of stone is left 

 beneath the water, expand and display each its circlet 

 of brilliant little tentacles. They are sea-anemones no 

 bigger than the precious stone in a signet-ring. Among 

 them a bright salmon-coloured worm hastens with ser- 

 pentine movement and the rippling strokes of a hundred 

 feathery feet to escape from the unaccustomed light. A 

 deep blood-red coloured prawn (Alpheus) darts from 

 concealment and hastily buries itself in the sandy bottom 

 of the pool, snapping its pincerlike claw with a sharp 

 cracking sound. A couple of bivalved shells (Lima 

 hians) which were concealed beneath the slab swim lazily 

 round the pool by opening and closing their delicate 

 white " valves " — an unusual kind of activity in such 

 mussels, oysters, and clams — whilst a fringe of long 

 orange-red tentacles trails in the water from each of them. 

 The lifting of another rock may dislodge an " octopus " — 

 or a huge brilliantly-coloured star-fish — or one of the 



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