WORK AT THE SEASHORE. 257 



Late in March the family proceeded again to Weymouth 

 for a month, and Philip Gosse immediately resumed his 

 work of collecting on the shore and dredging in the bay, 

 encouraged and cheered through rather bad weather by 

 the unexpected companionship of Bowerbank. The text 

 of the first volume of the Manual was finished in June and 

 published in July, upon which the Gosses, without delay, 

 started for a second visit to Ilfracombe. For some time 

 previously circulars had been sent out inviting persons 

 who desired to make themselves acquainted with the living 

 objects which the shore produced, and who wished to learn 

 at the same time how to col ect and how to determine the 

 names and the zoological relations of the specimens when 

 found, to join the writer on the shore of North Devon. 



But, before these circulars were issued, in the spring 

 of 1855, Kingsley had already committed a discreet indis- 

 cretion concerning the project. He had written in Glaucus : 

 " That most pious and most learned naturalist, Mr. Gosse, 

 whose works will be so often quoted in these pages, 

 proposes, it is understood, to establish this summer a 

 regular shore class, . . . and I advise any reader whose 

 fancy such a project pleases, to apply to him for details of 

 the scheme." The consequence was that Gosse was received 

 at Ilfracombe by a small party of ladies and gentlemen, who 

 formed themselves into a class for the study of marine 

 natural history. An hour or two was spent on the shore 

 every day on which the tide and the weather were suit- 

 able ; and when otherwise, the occupation was varied by 

 an indoor lesson on the identification of the animals 

 obtained, the specimens themselves affording illustrations. 

 But the weather was generally fine, and not a few species 

 of interest, with some rarities, came under the notice of 

 the class, scattered as they were over the rocks, and peep- 

 ing into the pools, almost every day for a couple of months. 



S 



