78 GLAUCUS; OPv, 



here : but we must defer tlie examination of tliem 

 till our return ; for it wants an hour yet of the 

 dead low spring-tide ; and ere we go home, we will 

 spend a few minutes at least on the rocks at Liver- 

 mead, where awaits us a strong-backed quarryman, 

 with a strong-backed crowbar, as is to be hoped 

 (for he snapped one right across there yesterday, 

 falling miserably on his back into a pool thereby), 

 and we will verify Mr. Gosse's observation, that — 



"When once we have begun to look with curi- 

 osity on the strange things that ordinary people 

 pass over without notice, our wonder is continually 

 excited by the variety of phase, and often by the 

 uncouthness of form, under which some of the 

 meaner creatures are presented to us. And this 

 is very specially the case with the inhabitants of 

 the sea. We can scarcely poke or pry for an hour 

 among the rocks, at low-water mark, or walk, with 

 an observant downcast eye, along the beach after a 

 gale, without finding some oddly-fashioned, suspi- 

 cious-looking being, unlike any form of life that 

 we have seen before. The dark concealed interior 



