...was no longer amused in the gardens, but wandered about the country. when the tide was out i spent hours on the sands, looking at the star-fish and sea-urchins, or watching the children digging for sand-eels, cockles, and the spouting razor-fish. i made collections of shells, such as were cast ashore, some so small that they appeared like white specks in patches of black sand. there was a small pier on the sands for shipping limestone brought from the coal mines inland. i was astonished to see the surface of these blocks of stone covered with beautiful impressions of what seemed to be leaves; how they got there i could not imagine, but i picked up the broken bits, and even large pieces, and brought them to my repository.