BY THE SEA. IO5 



that the ledges here, which now form such a solid 

 sea-wall, were once a soft bed of mud and sand, 

 in which the small boulders, by some means, had 

 been deposited ; in the long course of ages, the 

 plastic layers had gradually become hardened and 

 raised up bodily out of the sea. 



The shingle beaches are the seashore barrens. 

 Excepting in times of high winds, when the waves 

 pull up from the ocean's bed, and roll on the ter- 

 raced ridges huge wads of various sea weeds, no 

 species of marine animal or plant life are found on 

 them. The germs could not fasten themselves or 

 live on the ever-shifting, moving boulders. But 

 in comparatively sheltered places, between tides, 

 where the ledges are thickly padded with wracks 

 and mosses ; in pools and crevices, and close to 

 the water, where the rocks, between the last ebb- 

 ing and the first flowing tide, remain uncovered 

 but a short time, the brown line is fairly swarm- 

 ing with life, and affords a rich harvest field for 

 the naturalist. 



In the tide pools, or close to low-water mark, 

 I am sure to find amongst the eel-grass, rock- 

 weeds, etc., marks of fine pinkish threads, tangled 

 and dripping with the shining drops as I hold a 

 bunch of these sea-plants up to the light. A 

 frond or two placed in water in a glass jar, and the 

 fine threads no longer entirely cling to the coarse 

 weeds to which they are attached at the base, but 



