256 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



shrewdness of his wit, managed to carry on a thriving 

 trade among the numerous visitors to this romantic 

 spot. 



We shall not easily forget Marsden Rocks, or the 

 naturalist friends we have encountered around Peter's 

 sturdy table, while blue-lights and various- coloured 

 fires burning at intervals in different remote regions 

 of the cavern gave to the whole scene the aspect of 

 some brigand's cave, from which emerging into the 

 bright sunshine of the shore, the visitor is reminded 

 of Gil Bias escaping from his subterranean prison. 



The coast in the vicinity of Marsden is classic 

 ground to the lover of natural history. It was upon 

 this coast that Bewick studied his sea-birds, Joshua 

 Alder and Albany Hancock their Dorsibranchiate 

 mollusks, William Hutton his fossil flora of the coal- 

 measures, Hewitson his birds'-eggs. It is here, in 

 short, that the Tyneside naturalists are to be met 

 with ; and surely we need say no more in the way of 

 apology for thus introducing it to our readers. 



It was during one of our visits to this secluded 

 spot, as, with a geologist's hammer in hand, we were 

 busying ourselves in breaking specimens of the rocks, 

 that are only accessible at low water, a lucky blow 

 split off a fragment of considerable size, revealing to 

 the day a fissure, within which lay, coiled in endless 

 convolutions, one of the strangest animals we ever 

 had encountered (PL V. fig. 2). It seemed to be a 

 worm, but such a worm we thought as mortal eyes 

 had never seen before at least in the course of our 

 reading we had never met with any account of such a 

 monster, and presumed, of course, we had got some- 



