- VI 
PREFACE. 
rising in trunk-lilse branches, and now displaying an elegant array of 
interlacing tracery. The colouring surpasses everything ; vivid greens 
alternate with brown and yellow ; rich tints, ranging from purple and 
deepest blue to a pale reddish-brown. Brilliant rose, yellow, or peach- 
coloured Nullipores overgrow the decaying masses : they themselves 
being interwoven with the pearl-coloured plates of the Retipores, 
rivalling the most delicate ivory carvings. Close by wave the yellow 
and lilac Sea-fans ( G-urgonia ), perforated like delicate trellis- work. 
The bright sand of the bottom is covered with a thousand strange 
forms of sea-urchins and star-fishes. The leaf-like Fludree and Escharse 
adhere like mosses and lichens to the branches of coral — the yellow, 
green, and purple-striped limpets clinging to their trunks. The sea- 
anemones expand their crowns of tentacula upon the rugged rocks or 
on flat sands, looking like beds of variegated ranunculuses, or sparkling 
like gigantic cactus blossoms, shining with brightest colours. 
“Around the branches of the coral shrubs play the humming-birds 
of the ocean : little fishes sparkling with red or blue metallic glitter, or 
gleaming in golden green or brightest silvery lustre; like spirits of 
the deep, the delicate milk-white jelly-fishes float softly through the 
charmed world. Here gleam the violet and gold-green Isabelle, and 
the flaming yellow, black, and vermilion-striped Coquette, as they 
chase their prey; there the band-fish shoots snake-like through the 
thicket, resembling a silvery ribbon glittering with rose and azure 
hue. Then come the fabulous cuttle-fishes, in all the diaphanous 
colours of the rainbow, but with no definite outline. 
“ When day declines, with the shades of night this fantastic garden 
is lighted up with renewed splendour. Millions of microscopic medusa; 
and crustaceans, like so many glowing sparks, dance through the 
gloom. The Sea-pen waves in a greenish phosphorescent light. 
Whatever is beautiful or wondrous among fishes, Echinoderms, jelly- 
fishes and polypi and molluscs, is crowded into the warm and crystal 
waters of the Tropical ocean.’ 
It is stated on the Title-page that “ The Ocean Would ” is chiefly 
