THE YELLOW WINKLE. 29 



Algas, and of the manner of procuring them ; because 

 in sequence of idea these come' first into consideration. 

 But in point of fact, the search for animals goes on 

 simultaneously with the process just described ; the 

 same haunts which are affected by the marine plants 

 conceal various animals ; and it is one of the great 

 charms of natural history collecting, that you never 

 know what you may obtain at any moment. The 

 expectation is always kept on the stretch ; something 

 new, or at least unthought of, frequently strikes the 

 eye, and keeps the attention on the qui vive. 



Close examination of the fissures, of the pools, 

 of the rough and corroded stones that have been fished 

 up, and even of the sea-plants themselves, — reveals 

 many curious creatures of various kinds and forms, 

 each of which, as it is discovered, is seized and con- 

 signed to one or other of the collecting jars appropri- 

 ated to this purpose. Some of the subjects, indeed 

 require little research ; the tangled masses of olive 

 Bladder- weed, that sprawl, like dishevelled locks, 

 slovenly and slippery, over acres of these low-lying 

 ledges, are studded all over with those little smooth 

 globose shells that children delight to gather, attracted 

 by the variety and gaiety of their hues, brown, black, 

 orange, yellow, often banded with black, or marked 

 with minute chequers. This most abundant little 

 Winkle, for it is one of that genus (Littorina littor- 

 alisj, feeds on the Fucus, like the unowned cattle on 

 the American Pampas, and it must be owned that ,a 

 spacious and fertile pasture-ground is allotted to it. 



Among these we see, less numerous but sufficiently 

 common, the more bulky and still more familiar form 



