﻿220 Transactions. — Zoology. 



plenty of scope for variety of study. By way of illustrating wliat may be 

 seen in a very small space, I venture to lay the following remarks before the 

 Institute, premising that they were written several months ago. 



It is a well-known fact, that though all men have been provided with eyes, 

 it does not follow that they all make the same use of them. Some men walk 

 tlirough the world with their eyes pretty widely open, yet after all they see 

 very little ; while others are perpetually finding something to interest them. 

 It is given to some men to be curious or inquisitive, not to be content with 

 merely looking at a thing ; they must see into it, see what sort of a thing it 

 is. Other men are content with knowing that a tree is a tree, a rock a rock, 

 and so on. Place two men on the sea beach : one sees only tumbling water 

 on the one hand, and rocks or sand on the other ; while the other sees a 

 difference in every wave that comes rolling in to his feet — its force, its colour, 

 its height, are all noted ; while the sand tells its story of pounded shells or 

 disintegrated rock. It is with the view of noting what may be seen by careful 

 and minute observation, even in such an apparently trifling thing as the 

 subject of my remarks, that I proceed to tell of what may be found in one of 

 the most familiar objects that meet the eye on the sea-shoi*e — a Rock Pool. 

 I may say that the idea of writing this paper occurred to me during a recent 

 visit to the Heads, in company with one of those men who have not the 

 faculty of observing. 



We were standing on a low point of rock looking at the ebbing tide 

 rushing past, when he complained of weariness, and there being nothing to 

 see. Against this I exclaimed, stating there were thousands of things all 

 round us well worthy of study, and, casting my eye around, fixed on a little pool 

 at our feet as an illustration. My friend was rather startled when I made 

 him sit down on the rock beside me while I tried to describe to him the 

 microcosm contained in the little pool of water left by the tide. It was a 

 depression in the surface of a flat piece of rock, about two feet or so above 

 low water mark, about fifteen inches in length by eight or nine wide, of an 

 irregularly oval shape, and might contain two or three gallons of beautifully 

 clear water. The first feature noticeable was that the pool was fringed with 

 vegetation, and on a narrower inspection there were found three distinct 

 sorts. The first and most beautiful was a bright green broad-bladed plant — 

 the green laver — which belongs to the class of Chlorosperms ; there were also 

 some tufts of a grassy looking plant, belonging to the same class. In the 

 darker nooks grew several plants of a hard tough texture, of a dark red 

 colour, belonging to the Rhodosperms, not unlike the dulse of the old country, 

 but harder and not at all palatable. There were also some tufts and patches 

 of that common and very pretty plant, the Coralline or Rosetangle, a plant 

 which is more than one half lime. It was also observed that on the bordei-s 



