Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/26



is come at last. The arctic frosts, dreadful and protracted as they were, of February and March, that chilled the very life out of my poor cherished Actinias, and left me mourning over empty vases, have at last passed away, and here are the sweet, soft, south-west breezes of April. And now farewell to grimy, smoky London, and down, down, to Dorsetshire, as swiftly as the panting engine can drag us.

What a change have twenty four hours made! We raise the blind from our bed-room window, and instead of a forest of chimneys in the distance, and a mews in the foreground, with grooms currying horses that won't stand still, we gaze out upon the magnificent Bay of Weymouth, for our lodgings are on the ridge that they call the Lookout, with the sea below us breaking at the foot of the cliff.

The expanse before us has been described as second only to the beautiful Bay of Naples, by those who have seen both. I have not, and therefore cannot vouch