ross; little Fish or Shrimps timidly
come out from crevices in the rocks, or from among the fronds of the
sea-weeds, or hastily dart from shelter to shelter; each little pool is,
in fact, a miniature ocean in itself, and the longer one looks the more
and more one will see.

The dark green and brown sea-weeds do not live beyond a few--say about
15--fathoms in depth. Below them occur delicate scarlet species, with
Corallines and a different set of shells, Sea-urchins, etc. Down to
about 100 fathoms the animals and plants are still numerous and varied.
But they gradually diminish in numbers, and are replaced by new forms.

To appreciate fully the extreme loveliness of marine animals they must
be seen alive. "A tuft of Sertularia, laden with white, or brilliantly
tinted Polypites," says Hincks, "like blossoms on some tropical tree, is
a perfect marvel of beauty. The unfolding of a mass of Plumularia, taken
from amongst the miscellaneous contents of the dredge, and thrown into a
bottle of clear sea-water, is a sight which, once seen, no dredger will
forget. A tree of Campanularia, when each one of its thousand
transparent calycles--itself a study of form--is crowned by a circlet of
beaded arms, drooping over its margin like the petals of a flower,
offers a rare combination of the elements of beauty.

"The rocky wall of some deep tidal pool, thickly studded with the long
and slender stems of Tubularia, surmounted by the bright rose-coloured
heads, is like the gay parterre of a garden. Equally beautiful is the
dense growth of Campanularia, covering (as I have seen it in Plymouth
Sound) large tracts of the rock, its delicate shoots swaying to and fro
with each movement of the water, like trees in a storm, or the colony of
Obelia on the waving frond of the tangle looking almost ethereal in its
grace, transparency, and delicacy, as seen against the coarse dark
surface that supports it."

Few things are more beautiful than to look down from a boat into
transparent water. At the bottom wave graceful sea-weeds, brown, green,
or rose-coloured, and of most varied forms; on them and on the sands or
rocks rest starfishes, mollusca, crustaceans, Sea-anemones, and
innumerable other animals of strange forms and varied colours; in the
clear water float or dart about endless creatures; true fishes, many of
them brilliantly coloured; Cuttle-fishes like bad dreams; Lobsters and
Crabs with graceful, transparent Shrimps; Worms swimming about