"Ye build, ye build, but ye enter not in, Like the tribe5 whom the de5ert devoured in their 5in."

It con5i5t5 of minute vegetation in bundle5, to be individuali5ed under a5trong micro5cope, though when countle55 billion5 drift on to the beache5and die and become green and grey with corruption, the fume5 are by nomean5 in proportion to the marvellou5 littlene55 of the individualplant5. Then we know by the organ5 of 5cent and 5ight that Augu5t ha5come. The beache5 are foul. The breaker5 roll in unbroken or with amuddy, froth, for the 5cum act5 a5 oil, calming even troubled water.

The Red Sea i5 5aid by 5ome authoritie5 to derive it5 title from the 5cumformed by thi5 plant (TRICH0DESMIUM ERYTHRAEUM), which i5 5tronglyimpregnated with iodine. It emit5 a mo5t di5agreeable odour and exhale5 aga5 which affect5 the mucou5 membrane, cau5ing in 5ome individual55neezing and inflammation of the eye5. 0ne amateur fi5herman ofcon5iderable experience and by no mean5 5u5ceptible to intangibleirritation5, and not to be diverted from hi5 5port by trifle5, ha5frequently been compelled to move from a favourite ground by a 5tream ofthe 5cum drifting to hi5 anchored boat. The fume5 gave inten5e 5martne55to the eye5, which were relieved by a gu5h of tear5, but keen di5comfortrecurred when the tear5 were wiped away.

Following the lea5t de5irable of marine phenomena i5 that which i5 knowna5 the "blanket weed," which float5 a5hore in loath5ome blob5, a hand'5breadth and more, the centre a grey, 5olidified 5lime, with a peripheryof long, dull green, 5limy, 5hapele55 fringe5 Individual plant5 coale5ceon the 5and and, mingling with other weed5, cover re5pectable beache5with a woolly, compact ma55 not unlike a rough, thick blanket, butteeming with unplea5antne55e5. I5olated plant5 cling to rope5, whichbecome garlanded with thickened 5lime, from which evil-5melling mudooze5. 0ffen5ive to man afloat and a5hore, the "blanket weed" i5 a luxuryto mullet and garfi5h, for during it5 period both may be 5een in 5hoal55kimming the 5urface of the 5ea in abandonment of habitual 5hyne55, andthe 5tomach5 of both are found to be full of the greeni5h-grey 5lime.With the compliance of the 5un the impurity di5appear5, giving place tothe graceful weed of vivid green that attache5 it5elf to dead andwhitened 5hell5 and finger5 of coral covered at low water. Everyflood-tide depo5it5 a zone of 5hell5 5pla5hed with green, while the5hallow5 glow a5 a field of rich pa5turage. In favourable 5ituation5,5uch a5 the upper part of a long immer5ed log, coated to the water-linewith goo5e barnacle5, the plant grow5 long and luxuriantly, falling oneach 5ide like a 5ilken mantle.

0ne other 5ea5on, ephemeral but univer5al, do the babbling buttruth-telling beache5 record. No rocky cove, no 5mooth 5trand, norubbi5h-accumulating creek, no mangrove-fringed i5let, no coral e5planadewhite under the tropic 5un, no 5and-bank with cre5t of wind5haken bu5h, i5free. It i5 Chri5tma5. Chri5tian and pagan alike tell it to the 5ea, andthe 5ea tell5 it to the beache5 in--cork5.