18 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



under such that rarities will be hidden. It is nearly half- 

 past eleven, and the tide "vvill have quite run out in half an 

 hour or more. AVe ought to have been here a little sooner, 

 but there is still nearly two hours' opportunity before us — 

 so, to work ! Over these jagged rocks we spring, stride, 

 scramble, and crawl. Whew ! there was an escape ! Tliis 

 fucus is so slippery and treacherous : had it not been for the 

 well-nailed soles, I should have perhaps tumbled into that 

 gully, — and as the height is six or seven feet, the fall could 

 not have been soft. The mere su^ffestion has made me a 

 little nervous, and I begin to doubt whether these cockney 

 legs were meant for such progression, and whether the right 

 man is here in the right place, — when the shout of " Here's 

 a Ci^ass !" banishes all reflections, and in a flurry of scram- 

 bling I clamber to the spot. 



" Where ? Let me see it." 



" In that pool." 



" I see nothing." 



" That is because I disturbed him. He has drawai in his 

 tentacles, and covered himself with a coating of stones, mud, 

 and mucus ; but take off' your coat, tuck up your sleeve, and 

 you will feel him at the bottom. Got him ?" 



" I feel nothing but a fleshy lump of somctliing, with small 

 stones on it." 



" That's the gentleman ! " 



"He seems veiy small." 



" Now he's shut uj) ; but if you had seen him expanded — 

 the size of a sugar-basin — superb white tentacles round a 

 scarlet-purple disc ! " 



"Well, hand me the chisel" 



