24 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



for the Gem. There, lie is all safe in the jar, and we get 

 down from our ledge much richer than we got uj). It was a 

 good find that pool, was it not ? We had been upwards of 

 an hour peering about, without finding anything except a 

 Crassicoi'iiis ; and lo ! we come upon a little pool not two 

 feet in length, which yields us enough to occupy a month of 

 careful study. 



The tide is fast flowing in, and our jars are still half 

 empty. We must waste no time in talk. Here, give me 

 the landing-net ; I see a fish worth having. Bravo ! he is 

 in the glass jar, and looking at us with strange human look, 

 not in the least abashed by our admiration. Did you ever 

 see anything more exquisite ? It is a ribbon-fish, but not 

 the Gymnetrus Banknii. It cannot be more than two inches 

 and a half long, and a fifth of an inch high ; and note how 

 the caudal fin, instead of being a climax to the tail, as in 

 other fishes, forms a delicate ridge running all doAvn the 

 back. What a deUcate Quaker brown the colour is, and 

 how the transparency of the tissues allows us to see the 

 pulsating heart ! I hope we shall be able to keep it alive ; 

 it will be the cynosure of our collection. 



Meanwhile one of our party who has been ferreting every- 

 where, is now croucliing in a pool, and presently calls to us 

 to come and see a Terehella. (Plate VII., fig. 1 .) In three 

 rapid strides we are there, crouch down, look where he 

 points, and sec — nothing. 



" Impossible ! Don't you see long waving threads, like 

 minute worms ?" 



" Yes, I see threads, but that's all." 



