That surge brings with it from the depths of the
sea many shells, and amongst them those of the
spiral univalve or snail-like class, whose organisation
is adapted to crawling over rocks and sea-
plants, where they find their appropriate food.
Of these the winkle is the most common, found
in numbers on the rocks, and the whelk, the
largest on our coasts, where it inhabits deep
water; these small membranous bladders or
sacks adhering in regular order to each other
like a wasp's nest, are the eggs of the whelk,
which were attached to stones, and having
become loosened, have been cast ashore. This
dark-coloured cluster, of the size and hue of
grapes, soft to the touch, with a tough skin
resembling india-rubber, and called marine
grapes, are the eggs of the cuttle-fish, the most
singular in structure of all the marine creatures
we meet. With a body soft and naked, it
possesses great strength and power of seizing its
prey. Nature has furnished it with an internal
reservoir, in which a deep brown fluid is secreted,
and the animal has the power on the approach
of danger, of squirting this natural ink in the
face of its foe, which, mixing readily with
water, envelops the fish in an opaque cloud, thus
confusing his pursuer and favouring his own
escape. From this singular substance the
pigment known as sepia, valuable to painters in
water-colours, is prepared. Here is a shell
apparently of a dead fish of the whelk kind. It is
tenanted by a stranger, a small kind of crab,
called the hermit crab, who takes up its abode
in the hollow wreathed chambers. When young,
this species of crab partakes much of the habits
of the spider, and locates himself in such shells
as he finds deserted, but as he advances in size
he requires more accommodation. When
untenanted shells of sufficient capacity cannot be
obtained, the crab watches the living owner
as he puts out his head to feed, and seizing
him with his claws before he has time to
retreat, devours his flesh, and appropriates his
shell.

These other empty shells were once the claws
of crabs and lobsters, which belong to a class
known as Crustacea; they possess, like the
radiata, or star-fish, the extraordinary capacity
of self-dismemberment, and can on being alarmed,
or their shelly armour injured, cast away their
limbs without apparent pain. The amputation
is performed by a violent muscular contraction,
accompanied by a blow from the sound limb, or
against a rock. After a time the lost portion is
gradually restored, and thus we sometimes see a
lobster or crab with one of its arms very
diminutive when compared with the other: the
smaller being a second growth. The new limb
sprouts from the stump, and although less than
the corresponding claw on the opposite side,
is in other respects perfect. The progressive
growth of the Crustacean, or, as we may,
perhaps, term them, crusted shell-fish, is provided
for by nature. They possess the extraordinary
capacity of expansion—of bursting the old
shell and throwing it off, when a new shell is
secreted, which being thus renewed becomes
hardened, and assumes the form and efficiency
of its predecessor. The crab moves by its legs,
but in consequence of their position his motion,
in which he can attain considerable speed, must
be backward or sideways, being unable to
advance in a forward direction. The shrimps have
also legs by which they can move, but their tail
is the principal instrument of locomotion; the
lobster, by a vigorous stroke of the tail, the
front of which presented to the water is concave,
and its extremity furnished with a spreading fan,
can dart backward in the sea to a distance of
eighteen or twenty feet.

At the base of the animal creation, and
apparently connected with the vegetable kingdom, is
the sponge, a porous mass of network composed
of numerous interlacing fibres forming cells.
There are varieties of the sponge, found on every
coast, all in their texture resembling the finer
qualities in every-day use; the motion which
the sponge when alive exhibits, is the imbibition
and expulsion of water—the very purposes to
which, when inanimate, we apply it. If a living
sponge be at certain seasons cut open, minute
bud-like points will be seen, which are the
gemmules or young seeds of the animal plant. The
barnacle can be found in several forms, combining
the characteristics of the crustacea as well
as of the mollusca, and is lodged in a whitish
shell, composed of five distinct pieces fixed on a
soft, fleshy, and flexible stalk. Within this coat
of mail, lies the soft body, the shell acting by
valves, and it possesses the power of entangling
minute animals which come within its reach as
in a net. The barnacle, from its capacity of
adhering to wood, was long a formidable foe to
timber-built ships, and rendered copper sheathing
necessary. The revival of the evil is one of the
great defects of iron vessels, and some extraordinary
examples may be seen at Woolwich of the
manner in which barnacles congregate in certain
seas on iron plates. The sea anemone is perhaps
the most interesting marine being left by the
retiring tide, when it shrinks into a wrinkled and
conical lump. With the return of the water it
revives and assumes the appearance of a flower,
and bears a name indicative of the fancied
resemblance. In the deep tide pools, near low-water
mark, several varieties may be found, some
presenting to the eye lustrous petals like the rays
of the sunflower, and others variegated with the
colours of the rainbow. When fully expanded,
the sea anemone manifests extreme sensibility
and power of spontaneous movement; a cloud
veiling the sun will cause it to fold itself, as if
apprehensive of danger from a passing shadow,
and it shrinks from the slightest touch. It is
active in seizing and devouring its prey, often
superior to itself in size, which it holds pertinaciously,
and speedily engulphs in the membrane
adapted as a stomach. It possesses the power
of elongating the body while fixed by the base;
it can even change its position by gliding on the
disk which supports it, and it uses the disk as a
sucker when it attaches itself to any substance.
The internal structure is very curious, being
divided into numerous vertical partitions,