THE BEACH AGAIN. 
105 
quarter of a mile parallel with a fish about six feet in 
length, possibly a shark, which was prowling slowly 
along within two rods of the shore. It was of a pale 
brown color, singularly film-like and indistinct in the 
water, as if all nature abetted this child of ocean, and 
showed many darker transverse bars or rings whenever 
it came to the surface. It is well known that different 
fishes even of the same species are colored by the water 
they inhabit. We saw it go into a little cove or bathing- 
tub, where we had just been bathing, where the water 
was only four or five feet deep at that time, and after 
exploring it go slowly out again ; but we continued to 
bathe there, only observing first from the bank if the 
cove was prec-ccupied. We thought that the water was 
fuller of life, more aerated perhaps than that of the 
Bay, like soda-water, for we were as particular as 
young salmon, and the expectation of encountering 
a shark did not subtract anything from its life-giving 
qualities. 
Sometimes we sat on the wet beach and watched the 
beach birds, sand-pipers, and others, trotting along close 
to each wave, and waiting for the sea to cast up their 
breakfast. The former (^Charadrius melodus) ran with 
great rapidity and then stood stock still remarkably erect 
and hardly to be distinguished from the beach. The 
wet sand was covered with small skipping Sea Fleas, 
which apparently make a part of their food. These 
last are the little scavengers of the beach, and are so 
numerous that they will devour large fishes, which have 
been cast up, in a very short time. One little bird not 
larger than a sparrow, — it may have been a Phala- 
rope, — would alight on the turbulent surface where the 
breakers were five or six feet high, and float buoyantly 
