4 SEA-SIDE STUDIES, 



Indeed, I languished for the sea with a i^ort of zoological 

 calenture. Ill health was but a minor pretext ; the major 

 pretext was an ever-accelerating desire to become more in- 

 timately acquainted with the organisation of marine animals, 

 as an aid in those researches in General Physiology which 

 commenced some twenty years ago, and had for the last six 

 years become a passion. 



The sea was an old playfellow of mine, and from boy- 

 hood our friendship had been continually heightening. It 

 is almost needless to add that, like most boys who live on 

 the coast, I had early visions of being a sailor ; to be a tar 

 seemed the culmination of all earthly ambition ! Indeed, as a 

 preparatory training to that high aim, at nine years old I 

 declined to wear gloves, and secretly chewed bits of cigar, in 

 guise of a quid, as an evidence of nautical qualification. The 

 tobacco was horrible, but manliness at nine years old dis- 

 dains nausea, and I " stood " to my quid with the unflinch- 

 ing resolution to be afterwards shown in standing to my 

 guns. To rehearse the intensely nautical flavour of my dic- 

 tion at that period, and my fatal accuracy in all technical 

 terms, is beyond my power. Enough for the present to say, 

 that whatever else I learned of the sea, I learned little of its 

 inhabitants. Star-fishes and jelly-fish could not Ml of being 

 observed. Crabs are hunted and tortured by all amiable 

 boys ; and the bone of the cuttle-fish duly prized. But 

 in regard to its marvels and its inhabitants, the sea was a 

 new acquaintance to make. Mr Gosse and others had made 

 marine zoology fashionable. Tlie Aquarium at Regent's Park 

 had given glimpses of the wonders and the beauties which 



