Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/121

80 coming up the Channel, but hurry through it, and across the fields to the sandy water's edge.

A curious and interesting scene was here before me; the tide was out, and the water was reduced to what looked like a shallow rivulet, scarcely more than a ditch in fact, with large patches of mud uncovered, green with confervoid plants. On the opposite side, to which one could have thrown a stone, rose a high beach of pebbles, on which several fishermen's boats were lying. This was the Chesil Bank, one of the most singular and most extensive ridges of pebbles in the world. It is a natural barrier thrown up by the sea, sixteen miles in length, consisting of smoothly rolled pebbles of white spar, quartz, jasper, &c. which regularly diminish in size from that of an egg (their dimensions down here) to that of a horse-bean at Abbotsbury, and thence to mere fine gravel. This bank, which connects Portland with the main, divides from the sea of West Bay a very narrow inlet called the Fleet, which runs up to a length of ten miles, and forms at the extremity a swannery of about a thousand swans. The creek is the resort in winter of the Wild Swan, as well as many other species of waterfowl.

I was curious to observe what zoological features so remarkable a water might furnish; and though I did not obtain much, some peculiarities were noticed. The little pools left isolated, and the shallow indentations of the muddy shore were tenanted by multitudes of little fishes, which were lying motionless in great numbers, but shot away so invariably on the approach of a footfall that it was difficult to ascertain their