PREFACE. 
* 
TrN writing this little work and placing it the hands of 
— the public, the Author had three distinct motives 
in view. 
The first was to do what in him lay, by observation 
and study, to add a little more to the very scant know- 
ledge we possess of this much-neglected branch of Natural 
History. 
The second was to pen the results in as plain and 
intelligent a manner as his abilities could accomplish. 
And the third, to satisfy the desire of imparting to his 
fellows the information gained by the study. 
Regarding the first motive, the Author is convinced, 
through research, that much has been already done to 
classify and make known the creatures of the deep, but he 
is also convinced, through long and patient observation, 
that even with the little creatures we trample over on the 
beach, we have not yet learned a tithe of their habits, 
histories, and beauties ; and it is not too much in the 
Author to say that, during his travels, not one individual 
