CHAPTER III 



WHAT Is TO BE SEEN 



mHE sea fan is a flat, Waving fan of delicate 

 -1- tracery which grows upon stones and rocks. 

 The skeleton of it may be found hard and dry on 

 most of the neighbouring beaches in great abund- 

 ance. It is then dead beyond resurrection, as the 

 spores have all been washed and scraped off the 

 bones, and though some are found with the char- 

 acteristic pale mauve or lemon yellow still upon 

 them, they have never the beauty of the living 

 fan. There are four kinds: (1) Purple; (2) 

 yellow; (3) lavender blue ; and (4) brownish yel- 

 low, with a rich violet stalk and veins. 



The fern grows in long single branches, unlike 

 the slimy seaweed with which northern people are 

 familiar; most of these weeds are of a hard, 

 coral-like substance upon a bony skeleton some- 

 what like vulcanite. 



The feathers are similar, but grow in thick clus- 

 ters. They are of many different colours and 

 textures, some being smooth or overlaid with a 



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