To some of them at least; a volume would not give space for all.
It is on rocky coasts or the shores of bays and inlets that you will find most of the creatures which make their home on the borders of the vast and mighty ocean. Along a rugged shore like that of Maine, where the storms and great breakers carry the water high upon the rocks, little pools are formed, and in one of these natural aquariums there is enough life for a summer’s study.
Undisturbed by the rising and falling tide, the water is transparently clear, and you can see distinctly all the inhabitants of this little water-world. Clinging to the rocky sides are what appear to be silvery pink moss and brilliant aquatic flowers. Lying at the bottom or amid the jagged stones are round, prickly looking balls which resemble chestnut burs, some of them no larger than a tiny pearl button. So much like vegetables do all these things appear, it seems hardly possible they are animals; yet the moss is sometimes called the
Nurse of the Jelly-fish
and some of the small bubble-like bags clinging to its stems, which give it the silvery appearance, are full of eggs that will hatch into minute jelly bodies. After various transformations and subdivisions these bodies develop into the wonderfully beautiful and fairy-like jelly-fish which you find swimming in the deep waters of the bay, some of them trailing long, filmy, lace-like skirts or veils as they move.
The delicate red, green, yellow, pink, and lavender blossoms, which add so much to the beauty of the pool, are
Sea-anemones
Animals, too, every one, living only on animal food, which they find and absorb in a peculiar manner. The fringed petals are in reality tentacles that reach out and draw food into the mouth at the centre, from which it is taken into the stomach just below.
How the baby sea-anemones are born, how they are cared for by their mother, how they are at first “foot loose” and afterward become fixtures on the rocks, you must study out for yourselves; the description here is but an introduction at best and must be necessarily brief.
The queer-looking green burs, which you will see moving about if you watch them closely, are the