THE WONDERS OF THE SHOKE. 77 



of wliicli you may find a dozen anywhere as tlie 

 tide goes out ; and travels about at tlie crab's 

 expense, sharing with liim the offal which is his 

 food. Note, moreover, that the soldier crab is the 

 most hasty and blundering of marine animals, as 

 active as a monkey, and as subject to panics as 

 a horse ; wherefore, the poor anemone on his back 

 must have a hard life of it ; being knocked about 

 against rocks and shells, without warning, from 

 morn to night and night to morn. Against which 

 danger, kind nature, ever maxima in minimis, has 

 provided by fitting him with a stout leather coat, 

 wliich she has given to no other of his family. 



Next, for the babies' heads, covered with prickles, 

 instead of hair. They are sea-urchins, Amphidotus 

 cordatus, which burrow by thousands in the sand. 

 These are of that Spatangoid form, which you will 

 often find fossil in the chalk, and which shepherd 

 boys call snakes' heads. We shall soon find another 

 sort, an Echinus, and have time to talk over these 

 most strange (in my eyes) of all living animals. 



There are a hundred more things to be talked of 



