Dedication.

My dear Miss Grenfell,

I cannot forego the pleasure of dedicating this little book to you; excepting of course the opening exhortation (needless enough in your case) to those who have not yet discovered the value of Natural History. Accept it as a memorial of pleasant hours spent by us already, and as an earnest, I trust, of pleasant hours to be spent hereafter (perhaps, too, beyond this life in the nobler world to come), in examining together the works of our Father in heaven.

Your grateful and faithful brother-in-law,

C. KINGSLEY.

Bideford,
April 24, 1855.

The basis of this little book was an Article which appeared in the
North British Review for November 1854.

Beyond the shadow of the ship,
I watch’d the water snakes:
They moved in tracks of shining white,
And when they rear’d, the elfish light
Fell off in hoary flakes.

* * * *

O happy living things! no tongue
Their beauty might declare:
A spring of love gush’d from my heart,
And I bless’d them unware.

Coleridge’s Ancient Mariner.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

WOODENGRAVINGS.

FIG.

PAGE

1.

Nymphon Abyssorum, Norman

[81]

2.

Caprella spinosissima, Norman

[83]

3.

Pentacrinus asteria, Linnæus

[85]

COLOUREDPLATES.

PLATE

1.

1. Flustra Lineata; (a)enlarged with polypes protruding. 2. Flustra Foliacea. 3. Valkeria Cuscuta; (a) natural size;(b) two tentacles; (c) tentacles bent inwards;(d) enlarged, showing the gradual eversion of theanimal. 4. Crisia Denticulata;(a) natural size. 5. GemellariaLorioata; (a) natural size. 6. Sertularia Rosea; (a) naturalsize. 7. Cellularia Ciliata;(a) natural size; (b) one of the bird’sheads; (c) cell and bird’s head, muchenlarged. 8. CampanulariaSyringa; (a) natural size. 9. Campanularia Volubilis, enlarged. 10.Serialaria Lendigera. 11. Notamia Bursaria; (a) natural size;(b) two pairs of polype cells with the tobacco pipeappendages

[73]

2.

1. Cardium Rusticum, (tuberculatum). 2. Pagurus Bernhardi, in a Periwinkle Shell

[65]

3.

1. Nemerties Borlasii. 2.Sabella? 3. Sand-tube of Terebella Conchilega (See Plate8)

[136]

4.

1. Synapta Digitata; (a)Ditto separating and throwing out capsuliferous threads. 2.Thalassima Neptuni

[109]

5.

1. Balanophyllea Regia,expanded; (a) Ditto, contracted; (b) Ditto coral;(c) Ditto, tentacle enlarged; 2. Caryophyllea Smithii partly expanded;(a) Ditto, section of bony plates; (b) Ditto,tentacle. 3. Sagartia Anguicomaclosed; (a) Ditto, basal disc showing radiatingsepta. 4. Synapta Digitata(See Plate 4); (a, b) Ditto, fingeredtentacles enlarged; (c) Ditto, Spiculæ; (d)Ditto, anchor lying on its transparent anchor-plate. 5. S.Vittata? perforated anchor-plate;(a) Spicula

[117]

6.

1. Actinia Mesembryanthemum,partially expanded; (a) Ditto, closed. 2. Bunodes Crassicornis. 3. Caryophyllea Smithii Front

[135]

7.

1. Echinus Miliaris, creepingover Modiola barbata. 2. Ditto, creeping up theglass. 3. Hiding under stones

[168]

8.

1. Littorina Littorea (SeePlate 9); (a) operculum; (b) pallet; (c)part of pallet, magnified. 2. NassaReticulata (See Plate 11); (a) egg capsules;(b, c) fry; (d) shell of fry; (e)pallet, magnified. 3. PatellaVulgaris; (a) palate, natural size; (b,c) Ditto, enlarged. 4. EchinusMiliaris (See Plate 7); (a) teeth anddigesting mill; (b) suckers, enlarged; (c) spineand socket; (d) shell denuded; (e)Pedicellaria. 5. NemertesBorlasii (See Plate 3); (a) head, enlarged;(b) head expanded swallowing a Terebella

[201]

9.

1. Cucumaria Hyndmanni. 2. Littorina Littorea. 3. Siphunculus Bernhardus in shell of Turritella, with living Balani

[114]

10.

1. SerpulaContortuplicata. 2. HinnitesPusio. 3. DorisRepanda. 4. EolisPellucida. 5. PholadidæaPapyracea. 6. PholasParva. 7. FissurellaGræca

[129]

11.

1. SyngnathusLumbriciformis. 2. SaxicavaRugosa; (a) Shell of SaxicavaRugosa. 3. NassaReticulata

[163]

12.

1. Peachia Hastata. 2.Uraster Rubens

[92]