Eolides of extraordinary beauty haunt the same spots. The
great Eolis papillosa, of a delicate French grey; Eolis pellucida
(?) (Plate X. fig. 4), in which each papilla on the back is
beautifully coloured with a streak of pink, and tipped with iron
blue; and a most fantastical yellow little creature, so covered
with plumes and tentacles that the body is invisible, which I
believe to be the Idalia aspersa of Alder and Hancock.
At the bottom of the rock pools, behind St. Leonard's baths, may be
found hundreds of the snipe's feather Anemone (Sagartia
troglodytes), of every line; from the common brown and grey snipe's
feather kind, to the white-horned Hesperus, the orange-horned
Aurora, and a rich lilac and crimson variety, which does not seem
to agree with either the Lilacinia or Rubicunda of Gosse. A more
beautiful living bouquet could hardly be seen, than might be made
of the varieties of this single species, from this one place.
On the outside sands between the end of the Marina and the Martello
tower, you may find, at very low tides, great numbers of a sand-
tube, about three inches long, standing up out of the sand. I do
not mean the tubes of the Terebella, so common in all sands, which
are somewhat flexible, and have their upper end fringed with a
ragged ring of sandy arms: those I speak of are straight and
stiff, and ending in a point upward.
Pages:
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133