Transcribed from the 1890 Macmillan and Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org [Picture: Book cover] [Picture: Plate 1: Actinia Mesembryanthemum] GLAUCUS OR THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE * * * * * BY CHARLES KINGSLEY * * * * * _WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS_ * * * * * London MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1890 _The Right of Translation and Reproduction is Reserved_ * * * * * RICHARD CLAY AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BUNGAY. _First Edition_ (Fcap. 8vo), May 1855. _Second Edition_, August 1855. _Third Edition_, 1856. _Fourth Edition_ (with Coloured Illustrations), 1859. _Fifth Edition_ (Crown 8vo), 1873. _Reprinted_ 1878, 1879, 1881, 1884, 1887, 1890. Dedication. MY DEAR MISS GRENFELL, I CANNOT forego the pleasure of dedicating this little book to you; excepting of course the opening exhortation (needless enough in your case) to those who have not yet discovered the value of Natural History. Accept it as a memorial of pleasant hours spent by us already, and as an earnest, I trust, of pleasant hours to be spent hereafter (perhaps, too, beyond this life in the nobler world to come), in examining together the works of our Father in heaven. Your grateful and faithful brother-in-law, C. KINGSLEY. BIDEFORD, _April_ 24, 1855. * * * * * _The basis of this little book was an Article which appeared in the_ _North British Review for November_ 1854. * * * * * BEYOND the shadow of the ship, I watch’d the water snakes: They moved in tracks of shining white, And when they rear’d, the elfish light Fell off in hoary flakes. * * * * O happy living things! no tongue Their beauty might declare: A spring of love gush’d from my heart, And I bless’d them unware. COLERIDGE’S _Ancient Mariner_. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.