Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/138

Rh whence those hardy fellows are often exercised in artillery practice, firing their one great gun at a signal fixed on a buoy some mile or two out at sea,

A fine and substantial jetty of hewn stone has been built out from the base of the point, lengthening the harbour; on the end of which a large lamp lighted with gas from the town indicates the entrance to the port in the hours of darkness. For the protection of this important work from heavy seas, which are apt to prevail from the south and east, and which have ere now proved very injurious to it, a sort of breakwater has been formed about thirty or forty yards off, which is called the Mixon. It was made by throwing large stones overboard, until a heap was accumulated, sufficient to appear above the surface. The action of the waves settled their angles one within another, and gradually gave the mass considerable solidity; and it now appears as a low island of rocks, covered at ordinary high tides.

Within the numberless crevices of this mass of unshapen stones, which run down to considerable depth, though without possessing that isolation of the contained water which would constitute them pools, grow Algæ of many species in more than littoral vigour. The margins of the heap, especially the shoreward margins, which enjoy a more protected sea, are fringed with luxuriant tufts, and the surfaces of the individual blocks are studded with hundreds of fine specimens. In fact it is a varied, well-filled, and fertile garden of marine botany, and the algologist who may visit Weymouth will find it well worth his while to explore