The Express.
London, England, 1858-03-04 00:00:00

LITBRATUBB.

Sea-side Studies at Ilfracombe, Tenby, the Scilly
Isles, and Jersey. By GEORGE HENRY LEWES.
With Illustrations.—Blackwood and Sons, Edin-
burgh and London.
What can • literary man know about zoology ?
Dr. Johnson thought nothing, and frequent was the
laugh he nailed against " poor Goldy-" for his im-
pudence in lending to such themes the attractions of
his pleasant style. If we may judge by Mr.
Lewes, the laugh is no longer applicable ; the man
of letters brings to the subject a mind free from all
prejudice and trained to habits of investigation.
When he venture* into such unknown countries he
returns laden with treasure. In 1819 the author
of " Peter lichlemil e was the discoverer of a form
of reproduction unsuspected by the profoundest
zoologists ; the doctrine of plant morphology
was the discovery of the greatest of our modern
poets ; Haller himself was known as a littera/4er
before he became immortal as a physiologist. In like
manner the biographer of Goethe, and the historian
of all philosophy, ancient and modern, claims 4 have
thrown fresh light on the mysterious pheno-
mena of biology. The most startling of the
new discoveries—that on the identity of growth
and generation—Mr. Lewes tells us has re-
cently received striking confirmation in the
admirable researches of Professor Haxley as the
Aphides. Be this as it may, Mr. Lewes will not
tempt us to follow him in the scientific controversies
be raises in this volume. They may be all right, but
we do not like being taken in. The very connexion
Mr. Lewes attempts between the seaside and study
is unnatural—man is not scientific by the sea-side.
" By the sad ma waves" he sits lazily as a " mild-
eyed melancholy lotus-eater." Hs arrays himself in
outrageous costume, smokes innumerable cigars,
wastes the greater part of his blessed time. He
may even go so far as to meditate an epic or fall in
love, but he avoids science as a temperance orator,
on the platform, would a glass of rum. Even
Mr. Lewes is a cue in point, for the heavier
portion of his book he writes on his return to
town. Yet the reader need not fear. No man
better understands than our author the art of
strewing the path of learning with flowers. He has
always a pleasant voice and a genial smile.
And after all, if Plato taught in a garden
why should we forbid Mr. Lewes and his
pupils to philosophise at the sea-side? Origin-
ally the sketches composing this volume ap-
redin Blackwood's Magasme. They consist of
ewes' leisure adventures and researches—and
after his wont are made up of sparkling digression
and grave discourse, with not a little of that levity
of which poor Margaret Fuller complained. Mr.
Lewes endeavours "to furnish the visitor to the
ea-side with plain directions, by means of which he
may study end enjoy the marvels of ocean life, and
to present such descriptions of the animals, and the
wonders of their organisation, as may interest the
reader by his own fireside." That he succeeds is
dear, from such passages as the following account
of the

Selecting them nearly meal in size, I pped
" naked as their mother bore them," into glom yetlirod
sea-water. They did not Seem comfortable, and emetally
avoided 'each other. I then placed one of the empty shells
One breaking off Its spiral point) between them, mad at once
the contest commemoed. One made direct for the shell, poked
into it an inquiring claw, and having satisfied his cautious
mind that all wee safe, slipped In his tail with ludicrous
agility, end, fastening on by hie hooka, scuttled away, re-
joicing. He was not left long in uothaturhed poseession.
His need approached with strictly dishonourable tatentione ;
and they both walked round and round the vase, eyetareach
other with settled malignity—like Charles Kean and Wigan
In the famous duel of the Cbraioon Brotlwrs. No words of
seine can describe our Monts of laughter at this ludicrous
combat—one combatant uneasy about his unprotected rear,
the other sublimely awkward in his borrowed armour. For
the take of distinctness, I will take a liberty with two actors
names, and continue to designate our two crabs as Charles
Kau and Alfred Wigan. C. K., a/though the blacker,
larger, and stronger of the two, was at the disadventage of
being out of his shall, and was slow In coming to close
quarters ; at keit, after many hesitations, approaches, and
retreats, he made a rush behind, seized the shell in Lis
powerful grasp, while with his huge claw he haled Wigan
out, flung him discomfited aside, and popped his tail into the
shell. Wigan looked piteous fur • few moments, bat soon
his soul in arms and eager for the shell," he rushed upon
his foe; and then came the tug of crate. C. K. had too
fins a hold; he could not be &aloged. I poked his tender
tall, which was ezposttd through the broken shall, and he
vacated, leer* Wigan once more in possession. But lot
for long. Ones maw Wigan was clutched, haled oat, and
flung away. I then plated a smaller but parfait, la
the vase. Kean at owe quitted his rod, aad
ensconced himself in this more modest cottage, leaving
Wigan to make himself comfortable la the ruin ; which he
did.

The fun was not over yet. I pieced a third herralt-crab
in the vase. He was much smaller than the other two, but
hie shell was larger than the one in which Kean had settled,
as that unscrupulous crab quickly perceived, for he set about
bullying the stranger, who, however, had a shell large enough
to admit his whole body, and into it be withdrew. It wee
droll to see Kean clutching the shell, vainly waiting for the
stranger to protrude enough of his body to permit of a good
grasp and a tug; but the stranger knew better. He must
have been worn out at last, however, for although I did not
witness the feat, an hoar afterwards, when I looked =
Isaw Kean comfortable in the stranger's home. I
them again ; but again the usurpation was succeseful. On
the third day I find recorded in my journal ;—" The crabs
have been fighting, anJ changing their abodes continually.
C. K. is the terror of the other two, and Wigan is so sub-
dued by constant defeats that he is thrown into a fiesta if
even an empty shell is placed near him and although with-
out a shell himself, which most make him very cold end
comfortless in the terminal regions, he is afraid to enter an
empty one. The terrors of the last two days have been too
much for his nerves: one must almost question his=
sanity; he is not only beside hie shell, but beside
The approach of C. K. throws him into a trepidation, which
expresses itself in the most grotesque efforts at escape"
I tried anew experiment. Throwing a good-sized whelk
into the van, I waited to see Kean devour the whelk in
order to appropriate his shell ; for the house he kat skis,
though better than the previous home's, by no means suited
him. Mr. Bell, in his !!,story of British Crvateeea, °mike-
tures that the hermit crab often eats the mallow in whose
shell he is found—a conjecture adopted by thbeeraneat
writers, although Mr. Bell owns that he never withered the
fact. My observation lady contradicted the conjecture.
Keen clutched the shell at once, and poked in his int
tory claw' which, touching the operculum of the 6W=
made that animal withdraw and leave an empty space, into
which Kean popped his tail. In a few minutes the whelk
tired of this confinement in his own house, and all alarm
being over, began to protrude himself, and in doing so gently
pushed K. before him. In vain did the intruder feeling
himself slipping, cling fiercely to the shell; with slow but
Irresistible premise the mollusc ejorted him. This was re-
peated several times, till at length C. K. gave up in despair,
and contented himself with hie former shell.

Oar readers must pardon u if we offer them a bit
of advice. The purport system threatens to be a
great nuisance. When they take their next summer
trip, let them, eschewing Paris, the Rhine, and the
Alp, take Mr. Lewes for a guide, and hasten to the
sea-side of the old Island. Our author thus pleads
for

Till ClUnits OF MAIMS HUNTING.
In the previous chapter, I endeavoured to convey some
ides of the charms which the naturalbit and smateur may
Gad In the dark *inures of frowning rocks, the endless occu-
pation and amusement of clambering over ridges, macaw
under ledger, wriggling into crevice., or exploring the under
side of boulders, while a summer an* is gleaming over the
retiring sea, and the white gulls are hovering almost as
luny as the whiter clouds hanging in the blue above them.
Above and smund the landscape; in pools and crevices, the
pine , and by your side, pleeinant companions eager as your My description of these delights may have bees
thought enthuelamic by those to whom mots *mares ere
tmkrowo ; but in truth no enthaaisam la linlignlMO, no 49.
Peri ption ma reach the yielders of reality • the heet &seer
Um is bat this sod leltewime-Ilite the
footsteps rif reality. The 'my serve
to convey to others an bermedes that the speaker le moved,
but h riereasanly fails to paint the felicitous details which
'Peed him.

inillii;pprolimatims and confessedly intomphstit at* I
will endeavour to describe something of the delight*
attend thenaturulist when hi. bunting is over, aid his bone
is reached. For, understand this . the notureast, sad a ve-
',Sally the physiologist, has • morrow to his plasm% whereas
all other heaters have lost a doe to-day. Par belt hen se
to usdeerate may aura's plasma; tievertheasos the most
callable wry dborashealo, and I must hoe* dieertmassee low
arson the mien's peoslble pimiento mad my owe Brews
a enelhol tibia la b, down a beak, loads a pan ar or
acme a' ermine whisk las Was ameag the reeds. He has
rikt6s=i
h; has proved his skol—to his sera neldratica
sod sow Rattan maim but to 04 Os