A STUDY IN SEA "FIRS" 



By S. F. MAURICE DAUNCEY 



Illustrated with Photographs hy the Author 



IF during a holiday at the seaside you 

 have chanced to walk along the beach 

 after a heavy sea, you will have 

 wondered at the strength of the waves. 

 Here a bank of pebbles where the children 

 were playing yesterday has been swept 

 away ; further on the rock against which 

 you used to lie is no longer visible, and 

 in its place is a mass of shingle and weed. 



During your ramble the liigh-water 

 line may have attracted your attention. 

 At first sight what is gathered 

 there has looked Uke a bank 

 of rubbish, but upon closer 

 observation it has disclosed 

 hidden treasures. What an 

 assortment of goods it has to 

 show if you only take the 

 trouble to turn over its 

 tangled mass with your stick i 



Blocks of wood covered 

 with barnacles tell of the de- 

 struction of some old wooden 

 groin. Here a crab, unable 

 to regain the water, there a 

 star-fish stranded in the con- 

 fused weed, a few steps for- 

 ward the shell of a sea-urchin 

 — these objects tell of the 

 force of the waves which has 

 brought them so far up on 

 the shore. 



If you have stayed to ex- 

 amine some of the pieces of 

 seaweed or bits of rock, you 

 may have noticed a fine lace- 

 like structure attached to 

 them, or it may be washed free 

 and lying on the beach. If. 

 further, you have examined 

 this structure with a pocket 

 lens, what a surprise 3'ou have 

 had. 



It is composed of tiny cells 



and they form a horny skeleton. You will 

 at once know that it is not, as you first 

 thought, a bit of fine seaweed ; for seaweed 

 is never made up of cells like these. What 

 is it, then ? It is the skeleton of a colony 

 of zooids, and its common name is "Sea 

 Fir" — a name given to it because of the 

 fir-like appearance of some of the coarser 

 varieties. When aUve, each httle cell con- 

 tained a jelly-Uke form called a zooid, 

 which helped to feed the whole colony by 



bOtlKKl-.LS T.ML. 



