Let both, however, cast aside any predisposition to look upon the naturalist’s employment as arduous and toilsome, and make up their minds to look enquiringly into the living world around them, and they will soon find that they are led onward from the study of one object to another, the employment becoming more and more fascinating as they proceed.

Our aim in writing the following pages is to encourage the observation of the nature and life of the sea shore; to give such assistance to the beginner as will show him where the most interesting objects are to be found, and how he should set to work to obtain them. Practical hints are also furnished to enable the reader to successfully establish and maintain a salt-water aquarium for the observation of marine life at home, and to preserve various marine objects for the purpose of forming a study-collection of the common objects of the shore.

To have given a detailed description of all such objects would have been impossible in a work of this size, but a large number have been described and figured, and the broad principles of the classification of marine animals and plants have been given such prominence that, it is hoped, even the younger readers will find but little difficulty in determining the approximate positions, in the scale of life, of the various living things that come within their reach.

Of the many illustrations, which must necessarily greatly assist the reader in understanding the structure of the selected types and in the identification of the different species, a large number have been prepared especially for this work.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I.THE GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SEA SHORE[1]
II.THE SEA-SIDE NATURALIST[21]
III.SEA ANGLING[34]
IV.THE MARINE AQUARIUM[51]
V.THE PRESERVATION OF MARINE OBJECTS[71]
VI.EXAMINATION OF MARINE OBJECTS—DISSECTION[91]
VII.THE PROTOZOA OF THE SEA SHORE[102]
VIII.BRITISH SPONGES[115]
IX.THE CŒLENTERATES—JELLY-FISHES, ANEMONES, AND THEIR ALLIES[127]
X.STARFISHES, SEA URCHINS, ETC.[157]
XI.MARINE WORMS[172]
XII.MARINE MOLLUSCS[190]
XIII.MARINE ARTHROPODS[256]
XIV.MARINE VERTEBRATES[306]
XV.SEA WEEDS[343]
XVI.THE FLOWERING PLANTS OF THE SEA-SIDE[391]
INDEX [425]