20 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



no one will be able to trace in them that they have been 

 wouudfd. The Abbe Dicqueniare relates how he cut an 

 Anemone in two, transversely : the upper portion at once 

 expanded its tentacles, and began feeding ; in about two 

 months tentacles began to grow from the cut extremity of 

 the other portion, and thus lie got two perfect Anemones in 

 place of one. And yet these animals, so indifferent to 

 ■wounds, rarely survive a slight laceration of their base. At 

 least the Crassicornis, or coriaceous anemone, does not. I 

 have not experimented in this way on the other kinds, and 

 will limit my statement to the Crassicornis. This is the 

 reason why a chisel is necessary; for the "Crass" clings to 

 the rock with a vigour which generally defies finger-nails — 

 unlike the Anthea or the Mesemhnjanthemum, which yield 

 to a very light fingering. 



I have got my prize, but have so disturbed the water that 

 it is useless to remain longer by this pool. There are plenty 

 more. I poke and peer into them without result, till at last 

 a huge wall of stone rears itself in my path ; and I suspect 

 the other side is rent with fissures, ruoo-ed with ledoes of 

 promise. It is so. I squeeze into one of these fissures, 

 where various coloured Sponges, compound Ascidians, Ser- 

 pula3, and Algae, with drops of water pendent from their tips, 

 are just discernible through the darkness. In vain I strain 

 my eyes, now familiar with obscurity ; nothing tempts me. 

 The Sponges and the Rediwses scpirt water at me inces- 

 santly ; the Alg.-B drip, drip, drip ; sporadic Crabs trundle 

 away in all directions ; but nothing solicits my desires. 

 You want to know why I poke into that dark hole ? Because 

 Experience — the best of schoolmasters, were not the fees so 



