178 STONE-TURNING. 



and gravel. At the extreme of low water (it was 

 spring-tide), the points where these channels, (the 

 drainage of the sea-water from the weed-covered rocks, 

 mingled with the stream from the land) debouched 

 into the sea, were strewn with loose stones and 

 boulders of various sizes, partly embedded in the 

 deposit of mud which this formation so copiously 

 supplies ; for the ease with which the substance of 

 this grey slate is abraded by the action of the waves 

 covers the bottom with a fine whitish slimy mud, 

 very unpleasant to the feel, and ever ready to be 

 stirred up when a little sea is on. The water here 

 therefore scarcely ever has the brilliant clearness 

 which characterizes it among the limestones and 

 sandstones of South Devon. 



Stones found in such circumstances afford a good 

 hunting ground for the naturalist; fishes, Crustacea, 

 annelides, and star-fishes in particular haunt under 

 their shelter, and an hour's turning wdll, unless his 

 fortune be unusually inauspicious, yield him material 

 for days study. Beneath one of these stones I found 

 a specimen of our smallest native Pipe-fish, w^hich 

 Mr. Yarrell has described under the name of the Worm 

 Pipe-fish (Syngnathus lumbriciformisj. It is a 

 much more beautiful little creature than you might 

 suppose from either the figure or the description of 

 that eminent zoologist, who probably has had no 

 opportunity of seeing its living grace and elegance. 

 Mr. Yarrell simply says that its " colour is dark olive 

 green" ; this however very imperfectly expresses its 

 various tints, a want which I will endeavour to supply 

 with the httle beauty before my eyes ; premising that 



