A Year At the Shore

Part 1

A YEAR AT THE SHORE.

A YEAR AT THE SHORE

BY PHILIP HENRY GOSSE, F.R.S.

WITH THIRTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR, PRINTED IN COLOURS BY LEIGHTON BROTHERS

ALEXANDER STRAHAN, PUBLISHER 148, STRAND, LONDON 1865

EDINBURGH: T. CONSTABLE,

PRINTER TO THE QUEEN, AND TO THE UNIVERSITY.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

I.--JANUARY.

Advance of Waves upon a Beach--Foam--Shingle Voices--Climbing the Cliff--Look-out--Assault of the Sea--Defeat--Gulls--Descent--Cavernous Recess--Rock-pool--Purple-spotted Top--Its Progression--Tentacles--Eyes--Shell--A twisted Cone--Colours--Nacre--Dog-whelks--Notch in Shell--Its Testimony to Character--How the Whelk conquers the Bivalve--Its Weapon--Pelican’s Foot--Its Changes of Figure--Cowry--Description--Ciliated Proboscis--Vivid Colours--Growth of the Shell--Scallop--Superstition--Sea Butterflies--Leaping--Mantle--Eyes--Valves--Details of the Scallop Trade--Tenacity of Life--Sea Cucumber--Mode of Securing it--Its tentacular Coronet--Suckers--Dotted Siponcle--Its Proboscis--Hermit Siponcle, 1-29

II.--FEBRUARY.

View from Babbicombe Cliffs--Dog’s Head Rock--Jackdaws-- Oddicombe--Petit Tor--Bell-Rock--Tragedy--Teignmouth Ness--Exmouth--Portland--Fragrant Butterburr--Babbicombe and its Beach--Descent--Stone-turning--Serpula--Triope--Its Beauty--Sea Lemon--Crowned Eolis--Its Ferocity--Spawn--Development of Young--Fecundity--Dog-winkle--Purple Dye of Tyre--Legend of Hercules--Egg-capsules--Development--Limpet--Excavates the Rock--Faculty of Adhesion--Cement--Gills--Slit Limpet--Key-hole Limpet--Holes in Sandstone--Finger Pholas--Its Boring Habits--Mode of Operation--Various Hypotheses--Proved Facts--Red-noses--Coast changed by Mollusks, 30-60

III.--MARCH.

Invention of the Aquarium--The Principle--Advantages for Zoological Study--Necessity for out-door Examination--Visit to Anstey’s Cove--Boat Excursion--Sea-Cavern--Colonies of Anemones--Beadlet--Submarine Forest--Green Opelet--Its Powers--Spontaneous Division--Hope’s Nose--London-bridge Rock--Gloomy Rock-lane--Life on the Sea Rocks--Oyster-culture--Dead-man’s Finger--Anemones--Rosy A.--Scarlet fringed A.--Snowy A.--Orange-disked A.--Plumose A.--Their offensive Weapons--Dahlia Wartlet--Deluded Bee--Lucernaria--Ultimate Purpose of Creation, 61-84

IV.--APRIL.

Barren Sand--Torquay to Paignton--Goodrington Sands--Rocky Area--Paignton Cockle--A bonne Bouche--Common Cockle--Importance to the Hebrides--Foot of Cockle--Its Leaping and Burrowing Powers--Structure--Banded Venus--Its Beauty--Foot--Prawn--Armour Defensive and Offensive--Colours--Tail-plates--Movements--Keer-drag--The Shrimper--Shrimp--Flat-fish--Aberrations of Structure--Yarrell’s Remarks--Topknot--Effects of Fear on Colour--Beauty of its Eyes--Sand-Launce--Curious Catenation--A Tenant in the Tank, 85-113

V.--MAY.

Lesser Weever--Its Aspect--Its Spines--Are they Venomous?-- Cuvier’s Negative--Couch’s Affirmative--Remedy--Habits--Young Thornback--Motions--Spiracles--Eyes--Form--Colours--Spines-- Fifteen-spined Stickleback--Mode of Feeding--Nest-building--Mr. Couch’s Observations--Changes of Form--Worm-casts-- Swimming-crab--Mask-crab--Use of the Antennæ--Rocky Barrier-- Paper-worm--Gliding Motion--Tenacity of Life--Mouth strangely placed and strangely formed--Long-worm--A Portrait by Mr. Kingsley, 114-138

VI.--JUNE.

Maidencombe--Sea Hare--Its Shell--Purple Excretion--Ruminating Stomach--Its bad Reputation--Tusk-shell--Torbay Bonnet--Cup Limpet--Locust Screw--Parental Care--Fresh-water Screw--Great Sea Woodlouse--Maternal Care--Leaf-worms--Rainbow Leaf-worm--Reproduced Organs--Pearly Nereis--Blood Circulation--Proboscis--Scale Worm--Dorsal Shields--Feet--Bristles--Their Use--Number--Proboscis--Teeth--Tube-dwellings-- Phosphorescence--Locomotive Power in Worms, 139-167

VII.--JULY.

Dredging Ground--Two-spotted Sucker--Its Appearance--Beauty of its Eyes--Habits in Captivity--Adhesive Power--Vacuum-- Echinodermata--Starlet--Its Dimensions--Figure-- Eye-specks--Other Organs--Sea-Urchin--Mechanism of its Box--Its Growth--Sucker-feet--Spines--Feather-star-- Structure--Colours--Infant State--Dissimilar Forms connected--Bridge from Feather-star to Urchin--Flat-crab-- Contest between Dirt and Cleanliness--Peculiar Mode of procuring Food--Foot-jaws--Squat-lobsters--Three Kinds described--Habits--Form of Young, 168-194

VIII.--AUGUST.

Rock-pools--Work of Boring Mollusca--Process of Formation--Cork-wing--Natural History Illustration--Fish poisoned by an Anthea--Lucky Proach--Respiration of Fishes--Pipe-fishes--Persecutions of a Gammarus--A Male Wet-nurse--Butterfly Blenny--Shanny--Taking the Air--Freckled Goby--The Shore a profitable Field of Study, 195-220

IX.--SEPTEMBER.

Ball’s Dredge--Old Oyster Dredge--Dredging--Sun-star-- Cannibalism--Granulate Brittlestar--His Sad Fate--Angled Crab--Researches in Cods’ Stomachs--Nut-crabs--A Slow Coach-- Bryer’s Nut-crab--Contents of a Dredge--Hermit-crabs-- Cloaklet--Strange Association--Mystery of its Maintenance-- Solution--Psychical Faculties, 221-247

X.--OCTOBER.

Part 2

Life in Tropical Seas--Portuguese Man-of-War--Its Structure-- Bladder--Tentacles--Poisoning Powers--Effects--Dr. Wallich’s Objections--Gulf-stream--Velellæ--Stephanomia--Tongued Sarsia--Its Swimming-bell--Locomotive Powers--Tentacles-- Forbes’s Æquorea--Luminosity--Crimson-ringed Aurelia--Its Transformations--Cydippe--Poetical Description of it, 248-273

XI.--NOVEMBER.

Clarence’s Dream of the Sea Bottom--Diving-bell--Lobster-horn-- Campanularia--Medusa-like Progeny--Scalpellum--Acorn Barnacles--Necked Barnacle--Pyrgoma--Cirriped Transformations--Tube-worms--Serpula--Its Shell--Hooks and Bristles--Gills--Stopper--Its Homology and Use-- Sabella--Shell-tube--Gills--Soft-tube--Hook-plumed Sabella--Process of Tube-building, 274-297

XII.--DECEMBER.

Squirters--Affinity with Bivalves--Test--Gill-sac--Branchial Cilia--Heart--Blood Circulation--Digestion--Tentacles--Eyes-- Cynthia--Currant Squirter--Four-angled Squirter--Discharge of Eggs--Transformations--Compound Forms--Botrylli--Oceanic Forms--Pyrosoma--Its Luminosity--Sponges--Their Habitats-- Various Species described with the Forms of their Spicula-- Motives for Study--A Protest against prevalent Errors, 298-327

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE

I. DOG-WHELK--PELICAN’S FOOT--TOP--COWRY, Frontispiece.

II. SCALLOPS, TO FACE PAGE 22

III. DOTTED SIPONCLE--SEA-CUCUMBER, 28

IV. SEA LEMON--CROWNED EOLIS--SPAWN OF BOTH, 40

V. LIMPET--PURPLE--SLIT-LIMPET, 50

VI. RED-NOSE--FINGER-PHOLAS, 54

VII. SNOWY ANEMONE--DEAD-MAN’S FINGER--ROSY ANEMONE--LUCERNARIA--SMOOTH BEADLET, 66

VIII. DAHLIA WARTLET, 72

IX. GREEN OPELET--ORANGE-DISK ANEMONE, 78

X. SINOUS COCKLE--BANDED VENUS, 92

XI. COMMON SHRIMP--GREAT PRAWN, 102

XII. SAND-LAUNCE--TOPKNOT, 108

XIII. FIFTEEN-SPINED STICKLEBACK--LESSER WEEVER, 116

XIV. MASKED CRAB, 128

XV. BANDED FLAT-WORM--LONG-WORM, 134

XVI. SEA HARE, 140

XVII. LIGIA--TORBAY BONNET--TUSK-SHELL, 148

XVIII. PEARLY NEREIS--RAINBOW LEAF-WORM, 158

XIX. TWO-SPOTTED SUCKER, 168

XX. PURPLE-TIPPED URCHIN--ROSY FEATHER STAR--STARLET, 172

XXI. OLIVE SQUAT-LOBSTER--SHAGGY FLAT-CRAB--SCARLET SQUAT-LOBSTER, 188

Part 3

XXII. CORKWING WRASSE, 200

XXIII. FATHER-LASHER--WORM PIPE-FISH, 204

XXIV. FRECKLED GOBY--BUTTERFLY BLENNY, 212

XXV. GRANULATE BRITTLE-STAR--SUN-STAR, 224

XXVI. NUT-CRAB--ANGLED-CRAB, 230

XXVII. PURPLE HERMIT-CRAB--CLOAKLET--COMMON HERMIT-CRAB, 238

XXVIII. PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR--TONGUED SARSIA, 248

XXIX. FORBESIAN ÆQUOREA, 264

XXX. CYDIPPE--COMMON MEDUSA--LARVAL FORMS, 268

XXXI. PYRGOMA ON A CORAL--SCALPELLUM--LOBSTER-HORN-- NECKED BARNACLE--COMMON BARNACLE--PORCATE BARNACLE, 278

XXXII. SCARLET SERPULA, 286

XXXIII. SABELLÆ, 294

XXXIV. ORANGE-SPOTTED SQUIRTER--FOUR-ANGLED SQUIRTER--CURRANT SQUIRTER, 300

XXXV. BOTRYLLI, 310

XXXVI. SPONGES--CHITON, 318

A YEAR AT THE SHORE.

JANUARY.

How grandly those heavy waves are rolling in upon this long shingle-beach! Onward they come, with an even deliberate march that tells of power, out of that lowering sky that broods over the southern horizon; onward they come, onward! onward!--each following its precursor in serried ranks, ever coming nearer and nearer, ever looming larger and larger, like the resistless legions of a great invading army, sternly proud in its conscious strength; and ever and anon, as one and another dark billow breaks in a crest of foam, we may fancy we see the standards and ensigns of the threatening host waving here and there above the mass.

Still they drive in; and each in turn curls over its green head, and rushes up the sloping beach in a long-drawn sheet of the purest, whitest foam. The drifted snow itself is not more purely, spotlessly white than is that sheet of foaming water. How it seethes and sparkles! how it boils and bubbles! how it rings and hisses! The wind sings shrilly out of the driving clouds, now sinking to a moan, now rising to a roar; but we cannot hear it, for its tones are drowned in the ceaseless rushing of the mighty waves upon the beach and the rattle of the recoiling pebbles. Along the curvature of the shore the shrill hoarse voice runs, becoming softer and mellower as it recedes; while the echo of the bounding cliffs confines and repeats it, and mingles it with the succeeding ones, till all are blended on the ear in one deafening roar.

A LOOK-OUT.

But let us climb these slippery rocks, and picking our way cautiously over yonder craggy ledges, leaping the chasms that yawn between and reveal the hissing waters below, let us strive to attain the vantage-ground of that ridge that we see some fifty feet above the beach. It is perilous work, this scrambling over rocks, alternately slimy with treacherous sea-weed, and bristling with sharp needle-points of honey-combed limestone; now climbing a precipice, with the hands clutching these same rough points, and the toes finding a precarious hold in their interstices; now descending to a ledge awfully overhung; now creeping along a narrow shelf, by working each foot on, a few inches at a time; while the fingers nervously cling to the stony precipice, and the mind strives to forget the rugged depths below, and what would happen if--(ah! that “if!” let us cast it to the winds): another long stride across a gulf, a bound upward, and here we are.

Yes, here we stand, on the bluff, looking out to seaward in the very eye of the wind. We might have supposed it a tolerably smooth slope of stone when we looked at the point from the sea, or from the various parts of the shore whence we can see this promontory. But very different is it on a close acquaintance. It is a wilderness of craggy points and huge castellated masses of compact limestone marble, piled one on another in the wildest and most magnificent confusion. We have secured a comfortable berth, where, wedged in between two of these masses, we can without danger lean on one breast-high, and gaze over it down upon the very theatre of the elemental war. Is not this a sight worth the toil and trouble and peril of the ascent? The rock below is fringed with great insular peaks and blocks, bristling up amidst the sea, of various sizes and of the most fantastic and singular forms, which the sea at high-water would mostly cover; though now the far-receding tide exposes their horrid points, and the brown leprous coating of barnacles with which their lower sides are covered is broadly seen between the swelling seas.

Heavily rolls in the long deep swell of the ocean from the south-west; and as it approaches with its huge undulations driven up into foaming crests before the howling gale, each mighty wave breasts up against these rocks, as when an army of veteran legions assaults an impregnable fortress. Impregnable indeed! for having spent its fury in a rising wall of mingled water and foam, it shoots up perpendicularly to an immense elevation, as if it would scale the heights it could not overthrow, only to lie the next moment a broken ruin of water, murmuring and shrieking in the moats below. The insular peaks and blocks receive the incoming surge in an overwhelming flood, which, immediately, as the spent wave recedes, pours off through the interstices in a hundred beautiful jets and cascades; while in the narrow straits and passages the rushing sea boils and whirls about in curling sheets of snowy whiteness, curdling the surface; or, where it breaks away, of the most delicate pea-green hue, the tint produced by the bubbles seen through the water as they crowd to the air from the depths where they were formed,--the evidence of the unseen combat fiercely raging between earth and sea far below.

SEA-GULLS.

The shrieking gusts, as the gale rises yet higher and more furious, whip off the crests of the breaking billows, and bear the spray like a shower of salt sleet to the height where we stand; while the foam, as it forms and accumulates around the base of the headland, is seized by the same power in broad masses, and carried against the sides of the projecting rocks; flying hither and thither like fleeces of wool, and adhering like so much mortar to the face of the precipice, till it covers great spaces, to the height of many fathoms above the highest range of the tide. The gulls flit wailing through the storm, now breasting the wind, and beating the air with their long wings as they make slow headway; then, yielding the vain essay, they turn and are whirled away, till, recovering themselves, they come up again with a sweep, only again to be discomfited. Their white forms, now seen against the leaden-grey sky, now lost amidst the snowy foam, then coming into strong relief against the black rocks; their piping screams, now sounding close against the ear, then blending with the sounds of the elements, combine to add a wildness to the scene which was already sufficiently savage.

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