STOCK THE AQUARIUM. 159 



'm confinement, and look very beautiful in an Aquarium; 

 but we cannot place them in a tank with anemones, as 



they would nibble our actinia terribly. Let us go a little 

 farther on. One of our party, a little in advance, is calling 

 out for us " to come and see something," in a voice that 

 plainly says, that the " something " is worth seeing ; and 

 now reaching him, we acknowledge that it is. Here is a 

 genuine rock-pool, the gold mine of the naturalist. Let me 

 try and give you some idea of this natural Aquarium. 

 It consists of a basin formed in the rock, about mid-way 

 between high and low-water mark, and is from three to 

 four feet long, and two feet wide, by a foot deep. All 

 around its edge the Fuel hang down into the water, 

 and almost all the rest of the sides and bottom are 

 covered with the Cladaphora Ulva, Grinnellui PtUota and 

 other plants, whilst eels and crabs sport about in the 

 clear liquid, associated with the funny little ''water-fleas" 

 and shrimps. See ! there is a large shrimp, clear and 

 semi-transparent as if he were made of glass, looking 

 very like a ghost of a lobster come up from bottom of 

 the mighty deep to gaze on us, and gaze on us he 

 docs with his curious eyes set on the ends of stalks ; 

 but let us even hint at such a thing as catching him, 

 and he is off among the seaweed. Attached to the bot- 

 tom, at different points, are five or six beautiful white 

 and orangC-colored anemones, which, when we essay to 

 detach them, shrink to nothing but a minute hemispheri- 

 cal mass of flesh. But do not let that disappoint you, 

 us, if we turn over some of those mud-covered stones 

 near low-water mark, we shall find plenty more of them, 



