There have been occasional belated little crabs whom I
have interrupted as they were scuttling home, but none of those
dangerous monsters to whom in fearful excitement, and as a
challenge to one's companion, one used to offer a forefinger. I
refuse regretfully your explanation that it is my finger which is
bigger; I should like to think that it were indeed so, and that
the boys and girls of to-day find their crabs and starfishes in
the size and quantity to which I was accustomed. But I am afraid
we cannot hide it from ourselves that the supply is giving out.
It is in fact obvious that one cannot keep on taking starfishes
home and hanging them up in the hall as barometers without
detriment to the coming race.
We had another amusement as children, in which I suppose the
modern child is no longer able to indulge. We used to wait until
the tide was just beginning to go down, and then start to climb
round the foot of the cliffs from one sandy bay to another. The
waves lapped the cliffs, a single false step would have plunged
us into the sea, and we had all the excitement of being caught by
the tide without any of the danger. We had the further
excitement, if we were lucky, of seeing frantic people waving to
us from the top of the cliff, people of inconceivable ignorance,
who thought that the tide was coming up and that we were in
desperate peril.
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