All Praise The Tidy Sand-Hopper - By: David Bunch

The seaweed that drifts ashore on the daily tide will be reduced to fibers. The shell will be purged of its content. The bones of the fish will be cleaned, and the crab's claw hollowed. It is true that the various creatures beneath and above the tides all serve to preserve the wholesomeness of mother ocean's beaches, yet at long and at last it is the sand-hopper that best serves the purpose. Appetite on the beaches knows no bounds. It is reported by one observer that a sea-anemone, having swallowed a shell-fish, was all but cleft by the distention.

The position of the shell in the creature's stomach separated that organ in halves, the lesser of these being effectively blockaded from the mouth. Did the anemone pine and wither, and yield up its curious ghost because of this mishap? Not so. The instinctively resourceful creature proved a wily, and grand master of stratagem, and for that portion of the stomach that was blockaded it grew another mouth. And there it clung to its rock, gratifying not one hunger but two, and no doubt well pleased with itself, as indeed it should be.

It had altered a misfortune to a benefaction, and in a general way it may be said that this is a secret men yet are seeking. Of the function of the sand-hopper, in cleansing the beaches, an old work on the sea's creatures observes: "The sand-hoppers are extremely frequent on the shores of the arctic seas, where they emulate the tropical ants in their speedy removal of decaying substances." Thus Captain Holboll relates that, having inclosed a piece of shark's flesh in a basket, and let it down to a depth of 75 fathoms, in the Greenland sea, he by this means caught within two hours six quarts of these little creatures, while a vast number still followed the basket as it was hauled up.

So numberless are the sand-hoppers, than which no living creature is more erratic, that we tread them down without thought, as casually as we tread upon the sand. Indeed, there is no choice. But should they vanish tomorrow, should the sea that spawned them briefly decree their extinction, our lack were sad enough.

Far from the beaches, in the sweltering summer weather, we would talk of the golden days when there were lots-yes, lots-of sand-hoppers-the gift of a wise and a truly tidy Nature.

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