146 Secrets of the Ocean [FOURTH WEEK 



though the edges of the continents shrink and expand, 

 bend into bays or stretch out into capes, always through 

 all the ages the sea follows and laps with ripples or 

 booms with breakers unceasingly upon the shore. 



Whether considered from the standpoint of the scien- 

 tist, the mere curiosity of the tourist, or the keen delight 

 of the enthusiastic lover of Nature, the shore of the sea 

 its sands and waters, its ever-changing skies and moods 

 is one of the most interesting spots in the world. The 

 very bottom of the deep bays near shore dark and eter- 

 nally silent, prisoned under the restless waste of waters 

 is thickly carpeted with strange and many-coloured forms 

 of animal and vegetable life. But the beaches and tide- 

 pools over which the moon-urged tides hold sway in their 

 ceaseless rise and fall, teem with marvels of Nature's 

 handiwork, and every day are restocked and replanted 

 with new living objects, both arctic and tropical offerings 

 of each heaving tidal pulse. 



Here on the northeastern shores of our continent one 

 may spend days of leisure or delightful study among the 

 abundance and ever changing variety of wonderful living 

 creatures. It is not unlikely that the enjoyment and 

 absolute novelty of this new world may enable one to 

 look on these as some of the most pleasant days of life. 

 I write from the edge of the restless waters of Fundy, but 

 any rock-strewn shore will duplicate the marvels. 



At high tide the surface of the Bay is unbroken by 

 rock or shoal, and stretches glittering in the sunlight from 

 the beach at one's feet to where the New Brunswick shore 

 is just visible, appearing like a low bluish cloud on the 



