The water is crowded with creatures which prey upon one another, and all are interestingly adapted to their mode of life. Shore species are exceedingly abundant, and the struggle for life is there carried on with unceasing strife. In the endeavor to escape pursuers while they themselves pursue, these animals have various devices of armature and weapons of defense; they have keen vision, rapid motion, and are full of arts and wiles. One of the first resources for safety in this conflict is that of concealment. This is effected not only by actual hiding, but very generally by mimicry in simulating the color of their surroundings, and often by assuming other forms. Thus, for instance, the sea-anemone when expanded looks like a flower and is full of color, but when it contracts becomes so inconspicuous as to be with difficulty distinguished from the rock to which it is attached. Anemones also have stinging threads (nematophores), which they dart out for further defense. [pg007]
The study of biology has great fascination, and the subject seldom fails to awaken interest as soon as the habit of observation is formed. Jellyfishes, hardly more dense than the water and almost as limpid, swimming about with graceful motion, often illuminating the water at night with their phosphorescence, showing sensitiveness, volition, and order in their lives, cannot fail to excite wonder in even the most careless observer. Not less interesting are the thousands of other animals which crowd the shores, lying just beneath the surface of the sand, filling crevices in the rocks, hiding under every projection, or boldly--perhaps timidly, who shall say?--lying in full view, yet so inconspicuous that they are easily passed by unnoticed.
To find these creatures, to study their habits and organization, to consider the wonderful order of nature, leads through delightful paths into the realms of science. But even without scientific study the simple observation of the curious objects which lie at one's feet as one walks along the beach is a delightful pastime.
The features which separate the classes and the orders of both the plant and the animal life are so distinctive that it requires but very superficial observation to know them. It is easy to discriminate between mollusks, echinoderms, and polyps, and to recognize the relationship between univalves and bivalves, sea-urchins and starfishes, sea-anemones and corals. The equally plain distinctions between the branched, unbranched, tubular, and plate-like green algæ make them as easy to separate.
