VIU PREFACE. 



could oulj be given sparingly ; this deficiency has 

 now been supplied, as far as my resources extended ; 

 but no gathering of second-hand references has been 

 allowed to make the labour seem greater than it really 

 was. 



A Glossary of technical terms has been drawn up for 

 the general reader ; and this, together with the Illus- 

 trations, will, I hope, render the descriptions perfectly 

 intelligible, even to readers unfamiUar with marine 

 animals. 



There are two aspects in which Natural History may 

 be regarded — as an amusement, and as a science ; 

 the one being simply delight in natural objects, the 

 other a philosophic inquiry into the complex facts of 

 Life. As this latter was the motive which prompted 

 my visits to the coast, it has naturally assumed a promi- 

 nent place in these pages ; and although, throughout, a 

 style of popular exj)Osition is adopted, which aims at 

 bein": intellifjible to all cultivated readers, I have also 

 had a special audience in view, to whom must be sub- 

 mitted the appreciation of the new facts and new 

 physiological interpretations herein advanced. Every 

 comi)etent person will see that these novelties are the 

 result of hard work and continuous application ; and I 

 have been careful to indicate the amount and kind of 

 evidence — Observation, Dissection, or Experiment — 

 on which they rest ; so that the source of error, wher- 

 ever there is error, may be detected. 



