TOILERS IN THE SEA, 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



IT may as well be confessed at once that the first 

 suggestion of this volume was derived from a 

 perusal of the Rev. J. G. Wood's entertaining 

 " Homes without Hands," strengthened by the ob- 

 servation that he had left the " Homes " included 

 herein practically unnoticed, and that therefore the 

 subject was still open for treatment. In some 

 respects the animals are not so attractive, or interest- 

 ing, as those with which the above-named volume is 

 illustrated, but the " homes " are not less remarkable, 

 and a brief summary of their structure and archi- 

 tecture, with a few details of the builders, may not 

 be less acceptable to " lovers of nature." 



The objection has been made, and may be 

 repeated, that it is not an absolutely accurate desig- 

 nation to write of some of these as " homes " con- 

 structed by the animals for a residence, since they 

 are, in many cases, the skeletons of the animals 



B 



