COLLECTING 7 
The study of biology has great fascination, and the subject 
seldom fails to awaken interest as soon as the habit of observa- 
tion is formed. Jellyfishes, hardly more dense than the water 
and almost as limpid, swimming about with graceful motion, 
often illuminating the water at night with their phosphorescence, 
showing sensitiveness, volition, and order in their lives, cannot 
fail to excite wonder in even the most careless observer. Not 
less interesting are the thousands of other animals which crowd 
the shores, lying just beneath the surface of the sand, filling 
crevices in the rocks, hiding under every projection, or boldly— 
perhaps timidly, who shall say ?—lying in full view, yet so incpn- 
spicuous that they are easily passed by unnoticed. 
To find these creatures, to study their habits and organization, 
to consider the wonderful order of nature, leads through delight- 
ful paths into the realms of science. But even without scientific 
study the simple observation of the curious objects which lie at 
one’s feet as one walks along the beach is a delightful pastime. 
The features which separate the classes and the orders of both 
the plant and the animal life are so distinctive that it requires 
but’ very superficial observation to know them. It is easy to 
discriminate between mollusks, echinoderms, and polyps, and to 
recognize the relationship between univalves and bivalves, sea- 
urchins and starfishes, sea-anemones and corals. The equally 
plain distinctions between the branched, unbranched, tubular, 
and plate-like green algze make them as easy to separate. 
The pleasure of a walk through field or forest is enhanced by 
knowing something of the trees and flowers, and in the same way 
a visit to the sea-shore becomes doubly interesting when one has 
some knowledge, even though it be a very superficial one, of the 
organisms which inhabit the shore. 
ROCKY SHORES 
Rocky shores furnish an abundance and great variety of objects 
to the collector. The seaweeds here find places of attachment, 
and the lee and crevices of the rocks afford shelter to many ani- 
mals which could not live in more open and exposed places. The 
