346 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



to have in some measure anticipated the form of these 

 books, in which the reader is hurried so pleasantly from 

 subject to subject, that he has no time to notice that he is 

 acquiring a great quantity of positive and even technical in- 

 ^ formation. A single chapter of the Devonshire Coast opens 

 with a picture of the receding tide on the north shore at the 

 approach of evening ; proceeds to a particular account of 

 two remarkable species, the one a polyp, the other the rare 

 sipunculid Harvey's Syrinx, each so described that a mere 

 tyro ought to be able to identify a specimen for himself ; 

 describes the Capstone Hill and its attractions, like a sort 

 of glorified hand-book ; tells a thrilling story of the loss of a 

 child by drowning ; gives a close analysis of the physio- 

 logical characteristics of a fine sea-anemone, gemmacea, of 

 a singular marine spider, and of an uncouth sand-worm ; 

 recounts an entertaining adventure with a soft crab ; care- 

 fully depicts the scenery of the hamlet of Lee ; and ends 

 up with an elaborate account of the habitat, manners, and 

 anatomy of the worm pipe-fish {SyngnatJms liunbriciformis). 

 So much is pressed into one short chapter, and the others 

 are built up on the same plan, in a mode apparently art- 

 less, but really carefully designed to mingle entertainment 

 with instruction. The landscape framework in which the 

 zoology is set will be found to bear examination with 

 remarkable success. Every touch is painted from nature ; 

 not one is rhetorical, not one introduced to give colour to 

 the composition, but each is the result of a series of 

 extremely delicate apprehensions retained successively in 

 the memory with great distinctness, and transferred to 

 paper with fine exactitude. I know of no writer who has 

 described the phenomena of the falling tide on a rocky 

 coast with as much accuracy, or with more grace of style, 

 than Philip Gosse in the passage which I have alluded to 

 above in my accidental synopsis of a chapter taken at 



