By the Deep Sea; a Popular Introduction to the Wild Life of the British Shores

Abstract

THE author of this little volume is already favourably known by his popular books on wild flowers, &c, and the present work will add to his reputation as a writer for the non-scientific reader. The author's endeavour has been to introduce to the seaside visitor a large number of the interesting creatures to be found on the rocks, the sands and the shingle, and he claims to have written the whole of the work in close contact with the objects he describes—not only of cabinet specimens, but of the living creatures under natural conditions. In his own words: “There is not a line in the whole volume that has not been written within a few yards of, and in full view of the rocks.” The twenty chapters into which the book is divided are devoted to the sea and its shores, low forms of life, sponges, zoophytes, jelly-fishes, sea-anemones, sea-stars and sea-urchins, sea-worms, crabs and lobsters, shrimps and prawns, some minor crustaceans, barnacles and acorn-shells, “shell-fish,” sea-snails and sea-slugs, cuttles, sea-squirts, shore fishes, birds of the seashore, seaweeds, flowers of the shore and cliffs. The style of writing is easy and attractive, and the text is further elucidated by the insertion of a number of well-chosen, if somewhat rough, illustrations from the works of P. H. Gosse, and others which appear to have been specially drawn for the work. Many a seaside holiday will be more fully and permanently enjoyed by the study of this tastefully got-up little book, the usefulness of which is increased by a general and a classified index.