144 THE LOG OF THE SUN 



strip, claimed alternately by sea and land, which 

 would be represented on a map by the finest of 

 hair-lines, there exists a complete world of ani- 

 mated life, comparing in variety and numbers 

 with the life in that thinner medium, air. We 

 climb over enormous boulders, so different in ap- 

 pearance that they would never be thought to con- 

 sist of the same material as those higher up on 

 the shore. These are masses of wave-worn rock, 

 twenty or thirty feet across, piled in every im- 

 aginable position, and completely covered with a 

 thick padding of seaweed. Their drapery of algaa 

 hangs in festoons, and if we draw aside these sub- 

 marine curtains, scenes from a veritable fairy- 

 land are disclosed. Deep pools of water, clear as 

 crystal and icy cold, contain creatures both hide- 

 ous and beautiful, sombre and iridescent, formless 

 and of exquisite shape. 



The sea-anemones first attract attention, show- 

 ing as splashes of scarlet and salmon among the 

 olive-green seaweed, or in hundreds covering the 

 .entire bottom of a pool with a delicately hued mist 

 of waving tentacles. As the water leaves these 

 exposed on the walls of the caves, they lose their 

 plump appearance and, drawing in their wreath 

 of tentacles, hang limp and shrivelled, resembling 

 pieces of water-soaked meat as much as anything. 

 Submerged in the icy water they are veritable 

 animal-flowers. Their beauty is indeed well 

 guarded, hidden by the overhanging seaweed in 



