I 14 BY THE SEA. 



which gradually diminished in length as they 

 approached the hinder parts of the body. 



Nature has chosen the sea, in which she may 

 especially indulge her wayward, fanciful, almost 

 humorous moods. Such grotesque, aberrant forms 

 of life as are at times fished from her watery 

 cabinet; such "Quips and cranks" as are shown 

 in her various hydras, cyclops, hermaphrodites, 

 sphinxes and other odd conceits, not only amaze 

 but amuse us. 



It is interesting to compare, on this wonderful 

 boundary line, the forms of marine animal life 

 with those that live and move just beyond the 

 reach of the waves. Indeed, in a few species of 

 mollusks and crustaceans, the difference in cast 

 and mould between the water inhabiters and the 

 air breathers, is slight. The "sow bugs," for 

 example (which, by the way, are not bugs at all, 

 but members of the crustacean family, like the 

 shrimps, etc., living under damp stones beyond 

 high-water mark), can hardly be distinguished, 

 except by microscopic examination, from the grib- 

 bles, sea slaters and other allied species that are 

 content to live only in the water, or in places 

 where the tide flows over them at least twice a 

 day. 



It is a matter of much interest, also, to consider 

 the plant life peculiar to the sea-shore ; the spe- 

 cies that are found on the littoral picket-line and 



