4082 Notices of New Books. 



and bring ray face nearly close to the water, the whole interior is dis- 

 tinctly visible. The various forms and beautiful tints of the sea-weeds, 

 especially the purple flush of the Chondrus, are well worthy of admi- 

 ration ; and I can see the little shrimps and other Crustacea busily 

 swimming from weed to weed, or pursuing their instinctive occupa- 

 tions among the fronds and branches, — an ample forest to them. Tiny 

 fishes of the blenny genus are also hiding under the shadow of the 

 tufts, and occasionally darting out with quivering tail ; and one or two 

 brittle stars are deliberately crawling about, by means of their five 

 long and flexible arms, in a manner that seems a ludicrous caricature 

 of a man climbing up by his hands and feet, — only you must suppose 

 an additional arm growing from the top of his head. The variety of 

 their colours, and the singular but always elegant patterns in which 

 they are arranged, render these little star- fishes attractive. 



" Such a calm, clear, little well as this, among the rugged rocks, 

 stored with animal and vegetable life, is an object well calculated to 

 attract a poet's fancy. The following description must have been 

 drawn from just such a rock- pool, and most true to Nature it is : — 



' In hollows of the tide-worn reef, 

 Left at low water glistening in the sun, 

 Pellucid pools, and rocks in miniature, 

 With their small fry of fishes, crusted shells, 

 Kich mosses, tree-like sea-weed, sparkling pebbles, 

 Enchant the eye, and tempt the eager hand, 

 To violate the fairy paradise.' — Montgomery ." 



—P. 54. 



It is impossible to turn over the pages of this admirable book with- 

 out finding abundance of matter that rivets the attention of the true 

 naturalist; and such we hold to be not the mere preserver of the 

 remains of beings that were once endued with life, and blessed with 

 happiness and vigour, but he who marks well the varied phases of the 

 moving creature, while, instinct-directed, it performs those acts with 

 which the maintenance of its own life and the perpetuation of its kind 

 are so indissolubly connected. In endeavouring to seek the best 

 opportunity for prosecuting such studies, for keeping up a continued 

 series of such observations, Mr. Gosse was led to attempt the bring- 

 ing of animated Nature home to his fire-side, and thus to secure him- 

 self against those casualties and difficulties which distance and our 

 changeable climate so frequently interpose between the naturalist and 

 the objects of his research. 



