l, to lift the seaweeds and let the sunlight enter
into the chinks and crannies. In this way I can catch sight of many a
small being either on the seaweed or the rocky ledges, and even
creatures transparent as glass become visible by the thin outline
gleaming in the sunlight. Then I pluck a piece of seaweed, or chip off
a fragment of rock with a sharp-edged collecting knife, bringing away
the specimen uninjured upon it, and place it carefully in its own
separate bottle to be carried home alive and well.

Now though this little pool and I are old friends, I find new
treasures in it almost every time I go, for it is almost as full of
living things as the heavens are of stars, and the tide as it comes
and goes brings many a mother there to find a safe home for her little
ones, and many a waif and stray to seek shelter from the troublous
life of the open ocean.

You will perhaps find it difficult to believe that in this rock-bound
basin there can be millions of living creatures hidden away among the
fine feathery weeds; yet so it is. Not that they are always the same.
At one time it may be the home of myriads of infant crabs, not an
eighth of an inch long, another of baby sea-urchins only visible to
the naked eye as minute spots in the water, at another of young
jelly-fish growing on their tiny stalks, and splitting off one by one
as transparent bells to float away with the rising tide. Or it may be
that the whelk has chosen this quiet nook to deposit her leathery
eggs; or young barnacles, periwinkles, and limpets are growing up
among the green and brown tangles, while the far-sailing velella and
the stay-at-home sea-squirts, together with a variety of other
sea-animals, find a nursery and shelter in their youth in this quiet
harbor of rest.

And besides these casual visitors there are numberless creatures which
have lived and multiplied there, ever since I first visited the pool.
Tender red, olive-colored, and green seaweeds, stony corallines, and
acorn-barnacles lining the floor, sea-anemones clinging to the sides,
sponges tiny and many-colored hiding under the ledges, and limpets and
mussels wedged in the cracks. These can be easily seen with the naked
eye, but they are not the most numerous inhabitants; for these we
must search with a magnifying glass, which will reveal to us wonderful
fairy-forms, delicate crystal vases with tiny creatures in them whose
transparent lashes make whirlpools in the water, living crystal