ROMANCE OF DEPTHS OF THE SEA 93 



be seen ; while the molluscan whelks and horse- 

 mussels would still occur. Worms we should find 

 crawling in and out of crevices and tubes in the 

 sand, sea-urchins resting on the bottom, or : 



" Lilting where the laver lingers 

 The starfish trips on all her fingers." 



Encrusting organisms, such as hydrozoa and 

 polyzoa, are here at work clothing rocks and 

 stones, and shells of other animals with a rough 

 and hirsute pellage. Here, too, will be found an 

 abundance of brightly coloured sponges, while sea 

 anemones " those flowering stomachs " as George 

 Meredith calls them will be still as plentiful as 

 in the rock-pools left behind. 



The nature of this tract would of course vary 

 with the bottom deposit. The fauna we have 

 described in the main belong to a gravel and 

 stone strewn floor. But much the same progres- 

 sive change in the animal-life would be found if 

 we set out on our journey along a rocky outspur 

 running into the sea, with this difference : that 

 limpets would be clinging and barnacles anchored 

 to the rocks. Should we start, however, from a 

 flat and sandy shore we should miss the large, 

 sessile seaweeds and find instead numerous lug- 



