110 
THE YOUNG SCIENTIST. 
are," said the crab. " Can I do anything 
for you ? " 
''Come and tell me all the news you 
can!" she answered, peevishly, for she 
thought, "Better this ungainly fellow 
than no one to admire me;" but she 
little knew what a true unselfish nature 
lived under the dark shell of the king- 
crab. 
"This tide business is a dreadful 
trouble," she said, discontentedly. "I 
wonder what occasions it. I like being in 
deep water, where I can always be un- 
folded, because I know I am really worth 
looking at ! " 
"That you certainly are!" said the 
crab, with honest admiration; "but I 
think I can explain to you what occasions 
it, if it would amuse you to listen." 
*'You may as well tell me," the ane- 
mone answered, rather wearily. With 
this ve-y poor encouragement the crab 
proceeded, for he loved her so much that 
In his heart he could find no fault with 
her, and thought all she did perfection. 
" The earth is like a ball turning round 
always on a stick, or axis, passed through 
its centre: the moon travels round the 
earth, and the two together make what is 
called a system." 
" That is very stale news," laughed the 
anemone. "I know what you are going 
to say— that the moon attracts the 
water!" 
"On the contrary," quickly responded 
the crab, " that is a well-known mistake 
amounting almost to a superstition of 
bygone ages, and I will show you how 
that idea originated. As the earth is 
larger and heavier than the moon, one 
would weigh heavier than the other. If 
I could put them in miniature each at op- 
posite ends of a stick, and if I tried to 
balance them on my claw, we should find 
that, owing to the earth's greater weight, 
I should have to put my claw, not in the 
middle of the stick, but closer to the 
earth than to the moon. This would be 
the balancing point, and the centre of t-he 
system of the earth, and the moon, round 
which they revolve, is always in a line 
with each." 
Here the anemone seemed a little more 
interested, for she unfolded every tiniest 
petal as if to catch every word. Encour- 
aged by this, the king-crab continued — 
" As the earth turns separately from 
the moon it brings its great seas and 
oceans every now and again opposite this 
centre of the system, and the moon also, 
they being in the same line. The waters 
rise and expand to this centre (but not to 
the moon) as they pass over them, so 
making a tide till they are past; and 
when the centre and the moon have 
reached the opposite side of the earth, 
the same sea, not having forgotten its 
motion, tries to rise again, and this forms 
a second tide. So this is why there are 
two tides in the twenty-four hours — a real, 
and what we may call a false, tide." 
" Then the moon has really nothing to 
do with it beyond being in a line with the 
centre of attraction ? " remarked Actinia, 
gracefully waving her pink arms. 
" None whatever," answered the crab; 
" but as no one can see the centre point, 
and the moon can be seen, it makes peo- 
ple say the tides are caused by the attrac- 
tion of the moon — a power that I, for one, 
believe she does not possess." 
Just then a handsome spotted dog-fish 
swam past, gently touching one of the 
anemone's arms in recognition. 
"Ah! is that you?" she said, "I 
thought myself quite forgotten by my 
old friends." 
" That would be impossible, fair Ac- 
tinia," said the dog-fish, with the easy 
grace of a refined and thoroughbred man- 
ner, for his family being a very old one 
were looked up to as extremely aristo- 
cratic. " My mother and sisters are 
spending such a pleasant time among the 
rocks of the great seaweed forest that 
stretches westward to the Bahama Is- 
lands, and are wishing so much to see 
you, that I came over to try and persuade 
you to drift over there next time the 
undercurrent sets in that direction." 
" How very kind of you! " said the de- 
lighted anemone. " I hope it will come 
soon, for I am dying to get out of this 
dull place." 
The king-crab hearing this felt a little 
disappointed to find that he must have 
succeeded so badly in amusing her, and 
could not help wishing also that he was 
