Philip Henry Gosse

“ We raise the blind from our bed-room window, and instead of a forest of chimneys in the distance, and a mews in the foreground, with grooms currying horses that won't stand still, we gaze out upon the magnificent Bay of Weymouth, for our lodgings are on the ridge that they call the Lookout, with the sea below us breaking at the foot of the cliff. ”

“ Every one who has paid a visit to Weymouth is familiar with the Nothe, an elevated promontory that juts out a considerable distance to the eastward, forming the southern boundary of the harbour. It is a favourite walk; and great numbers of persons climb on a summer's afternoon the steep steps that lead up to its grassy summit, whence they turn, and cast a glance at the busy shipyard and the narrow harbour lying beneath their feet, and, beyond the pier, at the crowded esplanade receding in its sweeping curve till it is lost in the distant shore. ”

“ The sun and sky were all that could be wished; the air more autumnal than wintry; and, as we gazed on the town and harbour, about four miles distant, the long promontory of the Nothe, the calm silvery Bay, the huge mass of Portland, like a sleeping lion, and the boundless expanse of open sea beyond, we could not help feeling that this was by far the finest prospect we had seen in Dorsetshire. ”

“ Then the broad expanse of boundless sea brings the eye to Portland on the right, a lofty rounded mass, thrown out into strong light by the opposite sunbeams, and to that noble work the Breakwater, as noble in design and object, as marvellous in execution, which perpetually creeps out into the domain of the sea, presenting an effectual though scarcely visible wall to the waves, until by and by it shall stretch halfway across our present field of view, and inclose a safe harbour of refuge, on which many a mariner will bestow his grateful blessing. ”

“ One is hovering in quiescence, his colour pale, almost white; one of his fellows shoots along just over him; with the quickness of thought, the alarmed creature turns from white to an uniform deep brown, the rich full colour suffusing the skin in a second, like a blush on a young maiden's face. The hue is very beautiful; it is the fine, deep sienna-tint of tortoise-shell; a substance which, indeed, the mingling clouds of brown and pellucid horn closely resemble in the intermediate phases of colour. ”

“ We get into a lane, deeply cut up with ruts, and reduced in its narrow dimensions by heaps of rotting sea-grass bordering each side, on which we have to mount to allow the manure-cart to pass. The carter-lad, not unmindful of the elegancies of life, amidst his somewhat sordid employment, has decked the head of his white horse with a rosette of cherry-coloured ribbons.
Everything is rich, luxuriant, and promising, in nature. ”

“ We pass Osmington Mills, where a rather ample sheet of water is poured in a foaming cascade over the low cliff, and where those curious circular blocks of grit-stone, flat on one side and conical on the other, are imbedded with regularity in the sandy face of the precipice; and leave on our quarter the rocks, where the abundance of iron pyrites and sulphur has more than once presented the strange phenomenon of spontaneous fire, a phenomenon distinctly remembered still by the inhabitants of Weymouth, who night after night used to gaze out with wonder on the Burning Cliffs. ”

“ I accordingly took a walk around the shore, from the Lookout southward; making my way down the sloping cliff, which successive landslips have crumbled down and rent into chasms in the grassy turf, threatening at no very distant period the fall of the pretty cottages above, that already stand in perilous proximity to the falling edge. The beach below, sweeping round to Belmont Bay, is loose shingle, most unpleasant and fatiguing to walk over, and one of the most unproductive to the naturalist. ”

“ The beholder is astonished to see a chasm in the under side of the head begin to yawn, and the interior rapidly protrude, turning inside-out as it comes forth, like a living stocking, until it assumes the form of an enormous pear-shaped bag, the surface of which is beset with a multitude of secreting warts or glands, like those which stud the tongue in higher animals. In many genera the extremity of this stomach, throat, or proboscis is furnished with a formidable apparatus of horny grasping jaws, variously modified into teeth, hooks and knife-blades, for seizing, tearing and cutting prey ”

“ For, though it is so abundant in every shallow pool that idle little boys, on Saturday half-holidays, make it the constant object of their sporting excursions, as their metropolitan cousins resort to the suburban canals to catch Tittle-bats,—the Tansy is worth putting into an Aquarium. Some specimens are ugly enough, it is true, both in form and colour; but others are quite attractive: they vary much from an uniform blackish olive, to a mixture of bright colours, as green, white and yellow; and the eyes are almost always beautifully brilliant, the large iris being of a vivid scarlet. ”

“ There is a City hidden in heaven, but destined, by and by to come down to earth; it rises street above street, and wall above wall, and battlement above battlement; its streets are of gold transparent as glass, its gates are of pearl, and its foundations and walls of crystal are garnished with precious stones. It is peopled by happy spirits in resurrection bodies, by star-crowned men who have washed their robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb,—by none else. ”

“ The surfaces of the rocks are studded between tide-levels with that curious plant Rivularia nitida; which is sure to attract attention, with its little shining balls of vivid green colour, like school-boys' marbles, lying on little beds of vegetation that adhere to the naked rock. ”

“ Look at the Cockles!" was the exclamation; and they were indeed displaying their agility, and their beauty too, in fine style. The valves of the largest were gaping to the extent of three quarters of an inch; but the intermediate space was filled up by the spongy-looking, fleshy mantle, of a semi-pellucid orange hue. At one end protruded the siphons, two thick, short tubes, soldered as it were into one, and enveloped on all sides in a shaggy fringe of cirri or tentacles. ”

“ My notions of the Cephalopoda, derived from figures of the various species in books, were anything but agreeable. I thought of them as hideous, repulsive, fierce, atrocious creatures, hated and feared whenever seen. But an acquaintance with the pretty Sepiola vulgaris has not a little modified these ideas; and its beauty, sprightliness, and curious habits have made it quite a favourite pet among the denizens of my Aquarium. ”

“ I therefore gathered some tufts of the more bushy sea-weeds, and allowed them to remain floating in the Tank for an hour or two in the evening, a candle being placed outside. The result was the same as I have described; the vast numbers that swarmed out were really astonishing; and I was pleased to see the little Mullets flock up to the spot where the light revealed the tiny prey, and pick the atoms from the glass, one by one, as fast as they could seize them; and yet the hosts crowded on, faster than they could be devoured. ”

“ The Crabs are the scavengers of the sea; like the wolves and hyaænas of the land, they devour indiscriminately dead and prey. The bodies of all sorts of dead creatures are removed by the obscene appetite of these greedy Crustacea; and there is no doubt that many an enormous Crab, whose sapidity elicits praise at the epicure's table, has rioted on the decaying body of some unfortunate mariner. ”

“ It is beautiful to see the thousands of tiny globules forming on every plant, and even all over the stones, where the infant vegetation is beginning to grow;—to see these globules presently rising in rapid succession to the surface all over the vessel, and to see this process going on uninterruptedly as long as the rays of the sun are uninterrupted. ”

“ The latter is esteemed a somewhat rare shell, but in this Bay, and off Portland, it is not at all uncommon. In shape it is equally elegant with the former, the shell tapering to a conical point, and displaying a surface sculptured with spiral raised lines, each of which is composed of a number of minute rounded knobs, like a string of beads. Its texture is somewhat fragile, and its colour a faint flesh-tint or yellowish white, slightly dashed with purple.
In captivity the animal is rather chary of displaying itself; which is the more to be regretted since it is large and handsome. ”

“ Here then at the outset our much ignorance ought to humble that pride and self-sufficiency which is too apt to be the accompaniment of a little acquaintance with natural science. While the contemplation of the perfection with which everything is ordained and governed, ought to make us satisfied with the Divine Wisdom, and to check our repinings when its ordinances do not agree with our inclinations. An humble, teachable, child-like spirit, ready to receive every revelation of God, becomes one who looks on the Divine handiwork. ”

“ Lying flat on the mud, in many cases with not more than an inch of water above them, enjoying the light and warmth of the sun, were multitudes of Pleuronectidæ of several species, such as the Brill, the Plaice, the Dab, and the Sole. All that I saw were very young, from an inch to two inches in length. Though easily caught, they are of little value, for they do not live long in a tank, and are uninteresting from their sluggish habits, as they lie perfectly still on the bottom for hours together, trusting for concealment to the similarity of their russet colour to that of the sand. ”

“ It is true that, as yet, we get but occasional glimpses of these revelations: it is only now and then that a homely object becomes a picture of something higher, a dissolving view, that, while we gaze, changes its lineaments into something of higher beauty and deeper interest, a transparency lighted up in every feature by a glory behind it. ”

“ The people visible were few, and those were still, grave, and seemingly only half awake, quite unlike the "fast-living" people that one is accustomed to see in these days. Two or three sailors lounging in as many of the little stone-porches, a superannuated fisherman with palsied fingers weaving a mat of spunyarn, a little girl with pitcher on her shoulder going for water to the brook, and a woman or two half up the steep, and almost over the houses, hanging out clothes, made up about the sum total of the moving population. ”

“ Wearisome walking it is over the pebbly beach; the loose stones give away beneath the tread, and at every step the foot sinks in above the shoe-top. How wonderful to reflect that, with such an apparently feeble, ever shifting material, the Almighty has curbed the wildest fury of the raging sea, and made its very rage build up its own barrier! ”

“ After we have passed along for some distance, the cliffs begin to grow more lofty, and more solid and rocky in their character; the pools disappear, and the ledges become more rough, and more indented with deep narrow fissures, until they terminate in an abrupt wall or quay, which protects a tiny mimic bay. This little indentation is a most prolific source of washed sea-weeds in the summer and autumn, and many specimens of rarity and beauty are gathered here. ”

“ The fish attains, indeed, much greater dimensions, but the most brilliantly coloured individuals are usually about six inches in length. I have represented it as lurking under a projecting ledge of rock, a situation it loves to haunt, under the shadow of the branching tufts of sea-weeds, from which it picks its insect food. The Sea-weeds introduced into the picture are as follows:—immediately in front of the fish is a plant of Chondrus crispus; below its breast is the woolly green Cladophora uncialis, a little species remarkable for its compactness, and for the abrupt termination of its tufts. ”

“ Is it not to be marvelled at, that these humble beings should see without eyes, and smell without a nose? It is not affirmed that this is literally and entirely true; but it is exact to a degree enough to prove the wondrous manner in which the sense of touch is made to supersede all the other senses.
"Whether progressing on the solid surface, or moving through water, or tunneling the sand, advancing or retreating in its tube, the Annelid performs muscular feats, distinguished at once for their complexity and harmony. In grace of coil the little Worm excels the Serpent. ”

“ But the moment the plant is submerged all its glory returns: the pale olive branches become invested with a most brilliant flush of iridescent light blue, not changeable in tint, though varying in intensity according to the play of light that falls upon it. ”

“ The Sarsia is voracious, and the long and flexible peduncle is not only the stomach which digests the prey, but the hand which stretches forth to seek and to grasp it. I put into the bottle containing several the minute green-eyed fry of some fish, newly hatched, about half-an-inch in length. In a very few minutes I saw that a Sarsia had caught the little fish, which was seized and partly swallowed by the clubbed extremity of the peduncle. For hours afterwards the prey was visible, though more and more engulphed; the large head and prominent green eyes of the victim being very conspicuous. ”

“ I take it in considerable numbers in this Bay, by means of the keer-drag already described, which rakes the bottom. It is a little creature, rarely exceeding an inch in length; though the extensibility of the arms somewhat varies its dimensions.
When we turn out two or three from the net into a pail of sea-water, they are at first restless and active. They shoot hither and thither, as if by a direct effort of will, but in reality by the impulse of rapid and forcible jets of water, directed towards various points, from the mouth of the flexible funnel situated beneath the body. ”

“ In the rude and blundering manner in which the bearer performs his office, it cannot be but that the poor Actinia gets many a hard knock, and many a rough squeeze, among the rocks and stones over which his servant travels; but he appears to bear these mischances with great philosophy: I know of no species which lives so constantly expanded. A rude shock will indeed cause it to withdraw its tentacles, and contract its disk into that button-like shape which is common to the genus ”

“ THE GOLDEN-COMBED WORM.
These tube-forming Annelida are very interesting creatures; and many of them possess great beauty from the exquisitely delicate, and often highly coloured appendages with which they are furnished. Through the kindness of the Rev. C. Kingsley I possess a full grown specimen of the Golden-combed Worm (Amphitrite auricoma) . When I at first had him he was very shy and timid, but after a week or two he grew more familiar, and would protrude his gilt combs, and carry on his avocations, as if quite at home. ”

“ A steep and difficult road has been cut down to the beach, and about half-down is a hollow, whither the inhabitants resort for water. Beneath a stone a stop-cock is inserted, that none may be wasted of a fluid so precious: a woman with her pails coming down informed me that every drop they drink has to be fetched in this laborious manner, and carried up the steep precipice. To make it worse, the spring fails in droughts, when they must resort still lower, to a little stream that breaks out of the Cliff below. ”