WORK AT THE SEASHORE. 241 



It proved to be Balanophyllia, a fossil coral, the exist- 

 ence of which, with an actinia-like body of richly coloured 

 living flesh, had never been suspected. 



This episode may be taken as an example, not merely 

 of the discoveries in science which Philip Gosse was now 

 constantly making, but of his manner of life. He was 

 accustomed every day at low tide, if the hour was at all 

 convenient, to go down to the shore, and for several hours 

 before and after the lowest moment to examine the weedy 

 rocks, the loose flat stones under which molluscs and crus- 

 taceans lurked, the shallow tidal pools, and the dripping 

 walls of the small fissures and caverns. It was extra- 

 ordinary how wide a range of animal life was included 

 within the tidal limits. After some hours of severe labour, 

 he would tramp home with his treasures, arrange them in 

 dishes and vases with fresh sea-water, and then proceed 

 to a scientific examination of what was unique or novel. 

 The notes taken in this way, with the lens in one hand 

 and the pen in the other, were transferred bodily to the 

 pages of A Naturalists Ramble on the Devonshire Coast, 

 which was rapidly taking form. He was particularly 

 ardent in his study of the sea-anemones, a group which 

 he was presently to take under his special patronage. He 

 had no thought as yet of the generic distinctions which 

 he was to introduce later, and throughout 1852, and for 

 some years to come, what were afterwards distinguished 

 as Sagartia, Bnnodes, and the rest, were classed in one 

 vague genus, Actinia. The examination of the sea-anemone 

 was pushed, this summer, to the length of a gastronomical 

 test. A few specimens of the gross strawberry species, 

 crassicornis, were boiled and eaten. His account of this 

 courageous experiment runs as follows : — 



" I must confess that the first bit I essayed caused a 



" sort of lumpy feeling in my throat, as if a sentinel there 



R 



