Consequences of carelessness.—Beach at Shanklin.—Lobster-
pots.—Planorbis.—Marsh-snail.—Sea-rocket.—Starfish.—Crabs and
Lobsters.—Seaweed—Mode of drying it.—Mussels.—Shanklin
Chine.—The split shoe.—Shops at Shanklin.
When the carriage stopped at Williams’ Hotel at Shanklin, Mrs. Merton
asked Agnes what had become of her little pink silk handkerchief. Agnes
mechanically put her hand to her neck; but, alas! no handkerchief was
there. It was gone; and, though Agnes knew nothing about it, the
probability was, that, at that very moment, it was dangling from one of
the rough corners of the pulpit-stone. Agnes was quite in despair when
this thought struck her; and she was most anxious to go back to seek
it; but this Mrs. Merton would not hear of.
“No,” said she; “I could forgive any loss that happened accidentally;
but this was from downright carelessness.”
Agnes was excessively vexed, and could not help crying; as the
handkerchief had been given to her by her aunt Jane, and was a great
favourite: Mrs. Merton, however, paid no attention to her tears, but
walked into the inn with her husband, leaving poor Agnes to follow by
herself. The little girl felt this neglect bitterly, and she wept so
much before she could summon courage to appear again before her mother,
that the mistress of the house, who was a very good-natured person, on
her return from showing Mr. and Mrs. Merton to a room, began to pity
the poor child, and advised her to go into the garden for a few minutes
to recover herself. Agnes complied, and sat down, very sorrowfully,
under a tree within sight of the window of the room in which her
parents were. What appeared to Agnes a tremendously long time passed
before they appeared to notice her; but at last Mrs. Merton, having
placed her husband comfortably on the sofa, opened the glass door of
their room, and walked across the lawn to where Agnes sat. The little
girl started up immediately, and, meeting her mother, begged to be
forgiven.
“I will not promise never to lose anything again,” said she; “but, if
you will but forgive me, mamma, I will never again be inattentive to
your advice.”
Mrs. Merton kissed her; and, telling her that was all that could be
expected of a child of her age, proposed a walk to the beach. Agnes
gladly complied; and the good-natured landlady seemed quite pleased
when Mrs. Merton inquired what road they were to take, to see that the
poor little culprit had been forgiven. In compliance with the
directions they had received, they walked first up a short lane, till
they came to an open shop dignified by the name of a bazaar, opposite
to which was another lane which led down a steep hill to the beach.
“What a dreadful hill!” cried Agnes; “how shall we ever get up it
again? Do look, mamma, at those horses, how they are striving to drag
that cart up the hill; and yet it cannot be very heavy, for it is full
of nothing but sea-weed. What can they be going to do with so much
sea-weed?”
“Have you forgotten that I told you sea-weed is often used as manure?”
“I had forgotten it, I declare. It seems such a strange thing to use as
manure. But look, mamma, what a fine view we have of the sea here? and
yet how high we still are above it.”
The descent now became more rapid; and Agnes ran down the remainder of
the road, which, after various windings, at last conducted them to the
beach. When they reached it, and looked back at the cliffs, they found
the scene very striking. A long, almost perpendicular line of rocks
spread along, as far as they could see, occasionally jutting out almost
to the sea, and then falling back in deep bays. The face of the cliff
was of a pale brown, or yellow ochre colour, streaked with a deeper or
red shade. After looking around for a few minutes, Agnes cried, “mamma,
do you remember that scene in the Antiquary, where Isabella and her
father are surprised by the coming in of the tide, and in great danger
of being drowned? I think it must have been in such a place as this.”
Mrs. Merton was about to reply, when Agnes’s attention was attracted by
some curious-looking wicker-work cages which lay in a heap at the end
of the terrace on which they had been walking. “What can these be?”
cried she. A boy who was lying beside them, and tying them together
with pieces of string, looked up in her face, without disturbing
himself, and answered, “they are lobster-pots.”
“Pots!” repeated Agnes: “I think they are more like baskets than pots.
And why are these snails put in them?”
“They are the bait,” said the boy, without even looking at her this
time.
“Do look, mamma,” said Agnes, “what enormous snails! And here is a
large flat snail like that Susan found for me in the kitchen, only it
is such a great deal larger.”
[Illustration:
_Fig. 17._
THE HORNY SNAIL
(_Planorbis corneus_).
]
“That shell was placed among the snails by Linnæus,” said Mrs. Merton;
“but it is now called Planorbis, or the coil-shell. Look what a horny,
almost transparent, substance it has; indeed, I believe it is sometimes
called the Horny Snail. It does not live in the sea; but it is found in
ditches, or any stagnant water that is nearly dry in summer. When
attacked, it emits a dark reddish liquid, to hide itself from its
enemies, by rendering the water so dark that it cannot be seen.”
“How clever!”
“Instinct teaches many molluscous animals to do the same. The violet
snail emits a beautiful lilac fluid; and the cuttle-fish a liquid as
black as ink. But this is not all that I have to tell you about the
Planorbis: it lays its eggs upon a leaf, where they look like those of
the spider, or of some kind of insect.”
“Look mamma! Here is another shell, quite different from the Planorbis.”
[Illustration:
_Fig. 18._
THE MARSH-SNAIL
(_Lymnea communis_).
]
“It is different in shape, but it is nearly allied in other respects,
for that is the Marsh-snail, or Lymnea. Some of the species of this
genus crawl with their backs downwards along the under surface of the
water, if I may so describe it, just as you have seen a snail crawl on
a glass; and the species of the genus Physa, which is another little
black fresh-water-snail, not only creep in the manner I have described,
but let themselves down by a thread in the water, just as you may have
seen some kinds of caterpillars do on land.”
As they strolled along the beach they noticed several immense plants of
Sea-rocket, which grew close to the cliffs, and some of the fleshy
leaves of which Agnes gathered and ate. “I know I am safe in eating
this,” said she; “because I see by the four opposite petals of the
flower that it is one of the Cruciferæ, or cabbage-tribe, and I know
the plants of that tribe are wholesome.”
“Take care, however, lest you should some day find that though the
Cruciferous plants are eatable they are not always agreeable; for,
remember, Horseradish, and some other pungent plants, belong to that
tribe: but I am glad to find that you have remembered what I told you
about the shape of the flowers, which are called cruciferous, or
cross-bearing, from their four petals being arranged in the form of a
Greek cross.”
Agnes now found a specimen of the Star-fish, or five-fingers, a species
of which she had often seen in Scotland; but she did not attempt to
pick it up, as she remembered that one she found at Dunbar began to
decay before she could reach the inn. She stood, however, looking at
it, and her mother, who told her these Star-fishes were usually only
caught in the Northern seas, made her remark its mouth, or rather the
opening to its short bag-like stomach, which is placed in the very
centre of the rays; and the numerous holes through which the creature
could project its feet, having the power of shortening or extending
them at pleasure, and also of adhering, by the flat disk at their base,
to any substance it might be near; the part which may be called the
sole of the foot, acting like a sucker.
[Illustration:
_Fig. 19._
THE STAR-FISH, OR FIVE-FINGERS (_Asterias glacialis_).
]
“What poor helpless creatures these Star-fish seem to be!” said Agnes;
“I wonder how they contrive to live, for they seem to have no means of
catching anything.”
“You will be surprised, then, to hear that they are accused of catching
oysters; and that it is asserted in many books on natural history, that
there was formerly a penalty inflicted by the Admiralty Court on every
dredger who caught a Star-fish and did not kill it.”
“But how could the poor Star-fish, with its soft body, attack an
oyster, protected as it is by two strong shells?”
“It was said to wait till the oyster gaped, and then to thrust one of
its rays in between the valves to suck out the oyster.”
“Oh, mamma!” cried Agnes, laughing; “how very stupid the oyster must
have been not to shut its shell and crush the ray, instead of letting
itself be sucked out!”
“The story is as old as Aristotle; and, like many other stories told by
the ancients, it has been handed down to our times, without any one,
till lately, taking the trouble to examine whether it was true or
false. I believe the fact is, that when oysters or any other molluscous
animals become sickly, they are attacked by Star-fish and other similar
creatures, just as a dying snail is attacked and devoured by slugs; but
I think with you, that if a Star-fish were bold enough to attack a
healthy oyster, it would soon have reason to repent it.”
“I have often thought, mamma,” said Agnes; “what miserable lives
oysters and other similar creatures must lead in the sea; fixed as they
are to rocks, and incapable of hearing or seeing anything around them.”
“You forget,” replied her mother, “how often I have told you that our
Beneficent Creator has provided not only for the nourishment, but for
the enjoyments of all his creatures. I think it is Paley who remarks,
that when we recollect the happiness we feel when in perfect health and
high spirits, without any particular cause, we may easily comprehend
the enjoyments of the inferior animals.”
“I can understand that, mamma; and so I suppose that these poor oysters
enjoy the warmth of the sun and the flowing of the tide, as much as I
do the fresh breeze when it blows against me as I run.”
“Exactly so. Every creature has a capability of happiness adapted to
the situation in which it is placed; and when we do not perceive how
this is effected, we may rest assured that the fault is in ourselves,
and not in the system of Nature.”
While they were conversing in this manner, they had strolled to a
considerable distance along the beach, and were beginning to think of
turning back, as they were going from the Chine, which they intended to
visit before they returned to the inn, when Agnes’s attention was
attracted by a splendid mass of tangle, that had been thrown on the
beach by the sea; and catching hold of it, she picked up at the same
time a little crab not bigger than the end of her finger. The little
crab was of a pale yellow, and as soon as it was caught, it began to
run sideways as fast as possible. Agnes had often heard of crabs
running sideways, but she had never seen one do so before; and the
motions of this little creature struck her as so very odd that she
burst into a violent fit of laughter. Mrs. Merton came up to know what
was the matter; and when she saw the little crab running sideways as
fast as possible with only half of its legs, and then back with the
other half, she could not forbear smiling also. The next moment,
however, she checked herself.
“We ought not to laugh at this little creature,” said she, “since there
is nothing really ridiculous that is natural; but it only strikes us as
absurd because we are not used to it.”
“What curious creatures crabs are!” cried Agnes.
“They are called Crustaceous animals,” returned her mother, “because
they are covered with a crust or shell; and they are said to be
articulated, because their limbs are jointed so that they can throw one
off without suffering much inconvenience.”
“Lobsters can do the same thing, can they not?”
“Yes, they also belong to the Crustacea, and so do shrimps, and prawns,
and cray-fish, besides many other creatures you are not acquainted
with. All the Crustacea have also the power of throwing off their
shells when they have grown too large for them, and forming new ones,
as I think I explained to you some years ago when we were speaking of
cray-fish.”
[Illustration:
_Fig. 20._
IRISH MOSS, OR CARRAGEEN.
(_Fucus crispus._)
]
“They must suffer a great deal of pain when they change their shells.”
“They do; and some are said even to die under the operation; but I
suppose they must also suffer a good deal from the old shell being too
tight for them, before they throw it off.”
Agnes now picked up some sea-weed which struck her as being like what
her mother had once taken, boiled with milk, for a troublesome cough.
“It is the same,” said Mrs. Merton; “the popular name is Carrageen, or
Irish moss, but it is a kind of Fucus.”
“And what is this pale brown?” asked Agnes.
“That is called Duck’s Foot Conferva,” said Mrs. Merton, “and when
burnt it smells like lemons; but it is not a true Conferva.”
[Illustration:
_Fig. 21._
DUCK’S FOOT CONFERVA (_Flustra foliacea_).
]
“Do look at this beautiful pink sea-weed, mamma,” said Agnes.
“That is called Delesseria by botanists,” said Mrs. Merton, “but I do
not know its English name. It is very beautiful from its delicate
texture, and its brilliant colour. Its seeds are produced on the back
of the leaves, or fronds, as in ferns.”
“I should like to take some of it,” said Agnes,—“may I?”
“Certainly,” said Mrs. Merton, “but take great care in drying it, as it
is very apt to adhere to the paper. I think you know how to dry
sea-weed.”
“Oh! yes,” said Agnes, “Miss Green taught me. You first put the
sea-weed in water, and then put a piece of writing paper under it, so
as to let the plant lie upon the paper as it did in the water; and then
you take it up carefully, so as to let the water run off without
disturbing the plant.”
“You are quite right,” said Mrs. Merton; “but you must observe that
some sea-weeds are spoiled by putting them into fresh water, and will
change their colour, while others will crackle, when taken out, like
salt when thrown on a fire. Some kinds, when laid on a plate in fresh
water, will start and curl up as if they were alive; and nearly all sea
animals, such as the Star-fish we saw just now, are killed instantly by
putting them into fresh water. However, to return to the sea-weed, I am
so well pleased at your remembering what was told you, that I will give
you some more paper to dry your sea-weed on, if you should not have
enough; and you may gather as much as you like.”
Agnes did not suffer this permission to lie dormant; and she gathered
sea-weed of a great variety of shades of pink, brown, green, black, and
even white; as, however, she could not carry half the quantity she had
collected, her mother promised to bring her back to the beach the
following morning, if the weather should be fine, when she might
provide herself with a basket.
They now found the tide coming in so rapidly that they judged it most
prudent to return; though Agnes, who was fond of excitement, would
willingly have gone on a little farther, in spite of the danger; which,
indeed, was not very great, as the tide seldom rises very high on the
back of the Isle of Wight, and there was a considerable space between
the cliffs and the shore. The billows, however, came in with
considerable force, and they brought with them a piece of board that
looked as if it had belonged to a ship. Agnes picked it up, and found
some Mussels sticking to it; one of which was attached by what looked
like a tuft of coarse brown thread; but, when she asked what it was,
her mother smiled, and told her it was the Byssus.
“The Byssus!” cried Agnes: “I thought that was produced by the Pinna,
or Sea-wing. Don’t you remember, mamma, showing me a pair of gloves
made of the Byssus of the Pinna at the British Museum? I am sure you
said the Pinna.”
[Illustration:
_Fig. 22._
FRESHWATER MUSSELS (_Dreissena polymorpha_).
]
“I remember it perfectly; but other shell-fish produce Byssus besides
the Pinna.”
“Indeed! and are gloves made of it?”
“I believe not; because it is not produced in other shell-fish in
sufficient quantities.”
“Do not some Mussels produce pearls?” asked Agnes.
“Those are the River Mussels,” said Mrs. Merton. “Remember that there
are several kinds of Mussels: as, for example, the River Mussel, or
Unio, which produces what are called British pearls, and which is
common in many British rivers, particularly in the Conway, in Wales,
and in the Tay, in Scotland; the Sea Mussel, or Mytilus, the animal of
which is eaten, and which produces the Byssus; and the Horse Mussel, or
Modiola. The kind you have found, however, belongs to none of these, as
it is a freshwater species generally found in docks; and it must have
adhered to some vessel that has been shipwrecked here soon after it
left the dock in which it had been repaired.”
“Oh! mamma, don’t talk of shipwrecks,” cried Agnes, shuddering.
They had now reached a little terrace, raised to a considerable height
above the beach, where there was a little shop, the proprietor of which
sold fruit, and also engravings of various kinds, in the manner which
seems fashionable at Shanklin; as the shops there generally contain
articles of the most heterogeneous kinds. Here Mrs. Merton inquired the
way to the Chine, and they were directed to apply at a little cottage a
good way farther up the beach. They did so; and a most uncivil person
came out, who, unlocking a gate, told them to go through there, and
then left them to find their way how they could. They went straight on
along a narrow path, which was exceedingly slippery and disagreeable
from the recent rains, and they soon came to a place where the road
divided into two, and they did not know which way to take. As Mrs.
Merton was very much fatigued by the want of sleep the previous night,
Agnes ran forward along one of the paths, while Mrs. Merton waited her
return. She soon came back, saying that the path merely led to a seat;
but, as she descended the hill, Mrs. Merton noticed that her shoe had
burst open behind, and that she had great difficulty in keeping it on
her foot.
“My dear Agnes,” said her mother, “these shoes were never intended for
walking along such roads as these. Why did you not put on your
walking-shoes?”
Agnes looked at her feet in dismay; for, alas! the walking-shoes had
been left at Black Gang Chine. They had been very wet the preceding
evening; and when they were brought up after being cleaned, they felt
so damp that Agnes begged to have them dried, intending to put them on
just before she came away; but this she had forgotten to do; and her
present shoes, being totally unfit for walking on wet clayey soil, had
burst open in the manner described.
“What shall I do, mamma?” said Agnes: “I think I must try to fasten my
shoe together with a pin.”
Mrs. Merton smiled and shook her head; but, as no better means
presented themselves, the pin was obliged to be used.
They now walked on very uncomfortably; the pin pricked Agnes every step
she took; and her shoe was so loose that she had the greatest
difficulty to prevent it from falling off. She was, besides, encumbered
with her sea-weed, and some engravings they had purchased at the little
shop on the beach for aunt Jane, though of these last her mamma soon
relieved her. Mrs. Merton, on her part, did not feel much more inclined
to enjoy the beauties of the Chine than her poor little daughter, for
the path was very narrow, and was not only wet and slippery from the
recent rains, but in some places had given way altogether, and been
rudely propped up with the branch of a tree, apparently just cut down
for the purpose. Several other paths also branched off from that which
appeared the principal one, and thus the constant fear of having to
retrace their steps was mingled with their other troubles. What is
called a Chine in the Isle of Wight, means a cleft in the rocks, which
has been produced by the action of a stream running through them, and
thus, wherever there is a Chine, there is always a stream of water
running into the sea. At Shanklin Chine the cleft has penetrated to a
considerable depth into the rocks; and thus a deep ravine is formed, on
one side of which the rock is almost perpendicular, while on the other
it shelves gently downward, and is covered with trees and bushes, among
which are a few cottages very picturesquely placed. The cascade is
somewhat larger than that at Black Gang Chine; but still it possessed
very little grandeur, and Mrs. Merton and Agnes were both very glad
when they reached it to see a girl approaching with a key in her hand
to let them out, as it was a proof that they had nearly reached the end
of the Chine. They had still, however, a flight of broken, slippery
steps to ascend, after which they found themselves once more on solid
ground. Mrs. Merton’s object was now to get her little daughter a pair
of shoes, or boots; as, though she generally wished Agnes to suffer a
little when she left anything behind from want of care, she considered
the melancholy scene they had witnessed at Black Gang Chine was
sufficient to excuse a little forgetfulness. They therefore walked into
the village to find a shoe-shop; but this was a very difficult task.
They were first directed to a shop where the people sold eggs and
bacon, cheese and butter, intermixed with articles of haberdashery, and
boots and shoes; but, unfortunately, there were none there that fitted
Agnes; and they had to walk a long way on the dusty road, and even to
pass through a turnpike, before Agnes could obtain a pair of boots to
suit her; but she could not help sighing as they retraced their steps
back to the inn, and frequently exclaiming, “How glad I am, mamma, that
we do not live at Shanklin!”