CHAPTEE III. 



A Visit to Brixham — ^The Road — Character of the Coast — Berry 

 Castle — Legends — Brixham — Coast Scenery — Animals of the 

 Shore — The Painted Scallop — Its Beauty — Mantle — Tentacles 

 — Gem-like Eyes — Climbing Powers — Leaps — Mode of per- 

 forming these misunderstood — Explanation — Functions and 

 Structure of the Eyes — Structure of the Gills — Ciliary Action 

 — Beauty of the Phenomenon — Oddicombe Rock-pool — Its 

 Form — Contents — The Feather-star — Its Habits in Captivity — 

 Reproduction of its Limbs — Watcombe — Romantic Scenery 

 Sandstone Cliffs — ^The Sea Lemon — The Purple Dye — Mode 

 of applying it — Changes of Colour — Tor Abbey Sands — Shore 

 Animals — The Pholas — Its Siphons — Their Use, Structure 

 and Currents — Curious Contrivance — Anstey's Cove — View 

 from Babbicombe Downs — Skylark's Song — Precipice of 

 Limestone — Abundance of Animals — Pleurobranchus. 



On a fine morning near the middle of March I 

 walked to Torquay Station, and took my seat on the 

 "box of the omnibus for Brixham. I wanted to see 

 what advantages the place might present for a tempo- 

 rary settlement, what rents were, what sort of a coast it 

 was zoologically, and so forth. The road was plea- 

 sant, or rather would have been, if it had not been so 

 bitterly cold; but the wind had been for many weeks, 

 was then, and was destined to continue, most pertina- 

 ciously at East, and it blew right upon the shore, along 

 which the way lay for a great part of the distance. 



Long beaches of sand and shingle, the Tor Abbey, 

 the Livermead, and the Paignton Sands, divided by 



