THE 



SEA-SIDE AND AQUAKIUM, 



CHAPTER I. 



ACORN-BAKNACLES. 



" Each shell, each crawling insect, holds a rank 

 Important in the place of Him who framed 

 This scale of beings holds a rank which lost 

 Would break the chain, and leave behind a gap 

 Which Nature's self would rue." 



STILLINGFLEET. 



IT was towards the close of a warm day, a few sum- 

 mers ago, and under circumstances somewhat ludi- 

 crous, that I formed my first acquaintance with the 

 class of marine animals which I am now going to in- 

 troduce to the reader. Having had the good fortune 

 to discover at Joppa (a well-known village in the 

 vicinity of Edinburgh), a district richly deserving 

 exploration, I had been for several hours " collecting," 

 to use a technical phrase of zoologists, with the en- 



A 



