86 THE SEA-SHORE 



on its back, just like the writer of the famous 

 fables. 



If you want to catch an ^Esop prawn you must 

 look for it in the summer, for it always spends 

 the rest of the year in deeper water. But as 

 soon as the weather becomes really warm it 

 travels up and down with the tide, and you may 

 find it in plenty in the pools which are left among 

 the rocks at low water. 



PLATE XXVTII 

 THE SHRIMP (3) 



I told you that a good many of the shadowy 

 forms which you may see darting to and fro in 

 the rock-pools are those of prawns. The rest 

 are quite sure to be shrimps, which are very 

 much more common. Indeed, in most of the 

 rock pools you will find at least ten shrimps for 

 every prawn. But they are very difficult to see, 

 for they are partly transparent when they are 

 alive, so that they are scarcely visible when they 

 are swimming. And when they are resting at 

 the bottom of the pool their speckled bodies 

 look almost exactly like the sand on which 

 they lie. Besides this, they have a way of nearly 

 burying themselves, by scooping out a kind of 

 furrow with their hind limbs, sinking into it, 



