CONTACT WITH NATURE. 15 



is as that of a child ; but if, instead of comparing what is 

 with what is to he known, we compare our knowledge with 

 our previous ignorance, the rapidity of progress becomes the 

 keenest motive for endeavour. A few months at the coast, 

 under proper conditions, will make us acquainted with all, 

 or almost all, the principal forms of life ; and where so much 

 is still to be observed, each may hope to contribute some- 

 thino- new to the general stock, and thus all be benefited. 



A very few days of resolute study sufficed to substitute 

 definite ideas for that haze which necessarily overhangs mere 

 book knowledge, and repeated failures helped to educate both 

 eye and mind in the art of finding animals, and of identifying 

 them. At first, not only did I frequently mistake sea-weeds 

 for polypes, but instead of filling jars and phials with ease, 

 as anticipation had prefigured, 1 often came home with veiy 

 meagre results — and this in a place abounding in treasures. 

 The truth is, one has to learn many little details about the 

 animals — where to look for them, how to see them when 

 there, and how to secure them when seen — before one's basket 

 returns home well stocked. Luck is something, of course : 

 if there is only one bunch of sea- grapes (eggs of the cuttle- 

 fish) thrown on shore, only one person can bag it. But it 

 is the knowiugest hunters that are the luckiest. They know 

 how to profit by good fortune. You may perhaps be inte- 

 rested if I sketch a day's hunting, and into it condense most 

 of the details, the knowledge of which may abridge your own 

 labours, and increase your success on taking to the sport. 



It is spring-tide. Little or nothing can be done during 

 neap-tides, because it is among the rocks near extreme low- 



