6 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



active movements, hoping all the time vain hope ! 

 to keep them as his own ? An hour or two, and 

 they were floating on their backs, gasping their little 

 lives away in helpless agony ! 



Or in maturer years, when visiting the shores of the 

 wide Sea in search of health or for amusement, who 

 amongst us has not yearned to keep alive and make 

 his own the countless lovely objects that surround his 

 path ; and, as they woo his admiration, seem to court 

 his care in order to preserve their fading beauties ? 

 How often has he tried, in vessels filled with their 

 native element, to rear them ; but has seen them die 

 in spite of all his efforts, melt away before his eyes, 



and, 



" . . . . like the baseless fabric of a vision, 

 Leave not a wreck behind ! " 



Should he ask himself why he thus fails, the simple 

 answer is, he did not change the water, and they died. 

 It. is a lovely morning; let us stroll awhile upon 

 the shingly beach and watch the ebbing tide. How 

 stealthily the sea retires ! each gently curtseying 

 wave, as its last ripplings sink upon the sand, leaving 

 a line of foam to show how far it had presumed to 

 come. The rocks are now laid bare, over whose weed- 

 crowned heads the gentle spray is tossed in feathery 

 wreaths, which, sparkling in the sunbeams, shine 

 with all the rainbow's hues, until the sinking waters 

 leave the limpet-covered crags in silent loneliness. 

 We climb their slippery sides, and sit us down beside 

 some rock-girt pool, whose tranquil surface, stirless as 

 a glass, permits us to survey the depths below, clear 

 and translucent. Sea-weeds of roseate hues and forms 



