CH. Ill ON BOARD H.M.S. 'FLYING FISH' 51 



little swifts may be seen skimming over the waves, and as 

 they go they are said to collect a certain quantity of the 

 foam in their mouths, from which they manufacture the 

 mucilaginous material which helps to consolidate their 

 nests. 



It is strange how many things have been supposed by 

 the unlearned of every race and clime to have been born 

 of the sea-foam. I suppose its graceful, ever-changing 

 beauty, both of form and colour, has induced the poetical 

 and fanciful mind to believe that it must contain something 

 that is more than air and water. In our own country it 



Fm. 7. — PoUicipes. 



was generally believed that' the Alcyonium digitatum, or 

 Dead-men's fingers, of our coasts is formed by the churning 

 of the waves, as butter is produced from milk; and the 

 eggs of the common whelk,, the eggs of cuttle-fishes, and 

 many other objects which are thrown upon the sand by 

 heavy seas, were said to have been born of the ocean's 

 foam. 



Aphrodite herself, goddess of love and beauty, was born 

 of the foam of the sea ; and many other examples might 

 be quoted from history, legend, and myth, in which similar 

 ideas may be traced. 



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