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.