360 



THAT'S IT ; 



creatures are generally armed 

 with fine sharp teeth ; the 

 spines are instruments of slow 

 locomotion, and the pores are 

 furnished with retractile ten- 

 tacles, or feelers, by which the 

 animal stops its motion, and 

 fixes itself to any object. 



The common sea urchin is usually of a 

 reddish or purplish colour with white spines. 

 The spines are in some species tipped with 

 purple. It lives in various depths of water, 

 and congregates in greatest numbers on a clean 

 sea bottom ; and it is supposed that they are 

 li- sexual, being male at one season, and female 

 at another.* 



Such are a few of the wonders 

 of the sea shore. But thou- 

 sands of others equally in- 

 teresting remain unnoticed. 

 When once we have begun 

 to look with curiosity on the 

 strange things that ordinary 

 people pass over without notice, 

 oar wonder is continually ex- 

 cited by the variety of phase, 

 and often by the uncouthness of 

 form, under which some of the 

 meaner creatures are presented 

 to us. And this is very 

 specially the case with the 

 inhabitants of the sea. We can 

 scarcely poke or pry for an hour 

 among the rocks, at low water 

 mark, or walk with an observant 

 down-cast eye, along the beach 

 after a gale, without finding 

 some oddly-fashioned suspicious- 

 looking being, unlike any form 

 of life that we have seen before. 

 The dark concealed interior of 

 the sea becomes thus invested 

 with a fresh mystery ; its vast 

 recesses appear to be stored with 

 all imaginable forms ; and we 

 are tempted to think there must 

 be multitudes of living creatures] 



* Forbea's History of Srur-iisUeB. 



whose very figure and structure 

 have never yet been suspected.* 



" Oh, what an endless work have I in hand, 

 To count the sea's abundant progeny ; 

 Whose fruitful seed far passeth those in 

 land, 



And also those which won in th' azure sky. 

 For much more earth to tell the stars 

 on high, 



Albe they endless seem in estimation, 

 Than to recount the sea's posterity ; 



So fertile be the fronds in generation, 

 So huge their numbers, and so numberless 

 their nation." 



While yet upon the sea shore, 

 let us not omit to notice one of 

 the grand operations of nature 

 — the action of water upon rocks , 

 17, producing upon rocky coasts 

 the most romantic scenery, and 

 many grotesque and striking 



17 



11S3. 



forms. Sometimes caverns are 

 hollowed out, and are found to 

 consist of a series of chambers 

 exhibiting in their walls the 

 most fantastic shapes ; in other 

 cases majestic arches stand 

 boldly out into the sea from a 

 high cliff overhanging the shore. 

 The effect of water agitated by 

 storms upon rocky coasts is 



* Uossu's Aquarium. 



