NATJRE STUDY IN SCHOOLS. 139 



must consider it the male, individual is completely absorbed by the large, or 

 female, individual exhibits the true fertilization which we see in higher ani- 

 mals. This alone, as showing a greater degree of specialization, would tend 

 to raise the animal possessing it to a higher rank than those in which simple 

 conjugation oocurs. Thus we may safely consider the bell infusoria as one of 

 the highest of the single celled animals. 



WALKS AND TALKS BY THE SEASIDE. 



BY 



C. J. Maynard. 



For some days the wind has been blowing hard from the eastward, but 

 with increasing violence after the first night, and yesterday the tempest reached 

 its culminating point. All day great ships, coastward bound weie striving, 

 with double reefed lower sails and with bear poles above, to keep off the 

 land. Last night at twelve o'clock the wind began to blow in long, sobbing 

 puffs, with intervals of comparative quiet between. These intervals of quiet 

 soon became isolated spaces of calm and the gale was broken ; in an hour 

 all was quiet, seemingly more than quiet after the thunderous turmoil of the 

 last hours. Then, although I was miles away, the irregular jarring cadence 

 of the waves came distinctly to my ears and I could well imagine just what 

 was going on along that sandy beach that lay so far to the eastward. It is 

 strange how far the sound of breakers can be heard ; I was once cruising in 

 a yacht down Pamlico Sound and we had put into one of those shallow bays 

 that abound on the west side of the sound about opposite Cape Hatteras, in 

 order to gain a harbor during one of those gales for which the region of this 

 Cape is celebrated. At sundown the wind had subsided into a perfect calm, 

 and then we could distinctly hear the sound of the waves that were being 

 hurled upon the reefs and bars of that Cape of Storms, although the spot 

 upon which they were spending their fury was at least twenty-five miles 

 away. 



I have said that I could well imagine what was going on along the 

 beach, but I also knew without a doubt that Old Ocean in his rage was with 

 every wave, casting some valued prize upon the sands. Thus it is, that to- 

 day we stand upon this long reach of sandy shore in search of nature's 

 treasures. It is one of the fairest June mournings that ever dawned ; the level, 

 seemingly boundless ocean is before us, reflecting so perfectly the azure of 



