Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/56

Rh Algæ, and of the manner of procuring them; because in sequence of idea these come first into consideration. But in point of fact, the search for animals goes on simultaneously with the process just described; the same haunts which are affected by the marine plants conceal various animals; and it is one of the great charms of natural history collecting, that you never know what you may obtain at any moment. The expectation is always kept on the stretch; something new, or at least unthought of, frequently strikes the eye, and keeps the attention on the qui vive.

Close examination of the fissures, of the pools, of the rough and corroded stones that have been fished up, and even of the sea-plants themselves,—reveals many curious creatures of various kinds and forms, each of which, as it is discovered, is seized and consigned to one or other of the collecting jars appropriated to this purpose. Some of the subjects, indeed require little research; the tangled masses of olive Bladder-weed, that sprawl, like dishevelled locks, slovenly and slippery, over acres of these low-lying ledges, are studded all over with those little smooth globose shells that children delight to gather, attracted by the variety and gaiety of their hues, brown, black, orange, yellow, often banded with black, or marked with minute chequers. This most abundant little Winkle, for it is one of that genus (Littorina luttoralis), feeds on the Fucus, like the unowned cattle on the American Pampas, and it must be owned that a spacious and fertile pasture-ground is allotted to it.

Among these we see, less numerous but sufficiently common, the more bulky and still more familiar form