The Tide is high

Media file to play
or download

On the beach
you will find many seashells.
 These are
from various
molluscs that 
inhabit the
sea.  They are
related to
garden snails
and slugs.

Music file to listen to or download

Cockles and mussels

Treasure Island

Read the book!

Some molluscs have
bivalve shells, that is two
shells with a kind of hinge
which the animal inside
can open and shut.  
Shells of this kind
include the mussel,
cockle and oyster.

The largest bivalve
mollusc is the giant clam found on the Indo-Pacific 
coral reefs.

Beach sand is made from the rocks and seashells that have been broken up by the sea into fine particles.

The origin of the sand affects its colour.  For instance coral will give a whitish sand, yellow sand has quartz in it, and black sand is either volcanic or has coal in it.

Shell Horizons, Inc. Seashells Shells Wholesale Shell Dealer

SHELL
QUIZ

Other shells
look more
like a snail
shell with the characteristic
spiral shaped
shell.  Shells
of this type
are flat
periwinkles,
common
periwinkles
and dog whelk.

Dog whelks
feed on
barnacles but periwinkles
feed on
seaweed.

"Here in this little Bay,
Full of tumultuous life and great repose,
Where, twice a day,
The purposeless, glad ocean comes and goes,
Under high cliffs, and far from the huge town,
I sit me down"

From Magna est Veritas
By Coventry Patmore

Welcome to shellworld Cyberisland

Australian
 Museum 
online-
malacology

"If all the world were paper,
And all the sea were ink,
And all the trees were bread and cheese,
What should we do for drink."

(17th cent.)

CRAFT MATERIALS:

Seashells (chalkier, white shells work best)

Jar of freshwater

Watercolor or acrylic paints and brushes

Time needed: Under 1 Hour

1. Rinse a few shells with freshwater and let them dry in the sun.

2. Paint pictures on the inside of each shell, being careful to let each color dry before adding the next for a crisp picture, or letting the colors blend for an abstract splash of color.

3. Set finished shells out in the sun until dry.

Knot Tying

WORLDWIDE
SPECIMEN
SHELLS

Shell collecting and beginners page

"I hear the far-off curfew sound,
Over some wide-watered shore,
Swinging slow with sullen roar."

John Milton

1608-1674

She sells sea shells on the sea shore;

The shells that she sells are sea shells I'm sure.

So if she sells sea shells on the sea shore,

I'm sure that the shells are sea shore shells.

Razor shells and cockle shells (both bivalves) live under the surface of the sand on the beach.  They filter plankton from the seawater for food.

The Kids section

Conchologists of America

Limpets are another type
of shell.  This animal can
move slowly over the
rocks it inhabits but
always returns to its
own special spot.  When
the tide goes out it clings
tightly to the rock.  They 
are almost impossible
to move.

Pirate Image Archive

Blackbeard Lives!! The story continues
Fun site

Oak Island

search for the hidden treasure

The shell

And then I pressed the shell
Close to my ear
And listened well.

And straight away, like a bell,
Came low and clear
The slow, sad, murmur of distant seas

Whipped by an icy breeze
Upon a shore
Wind-swept and desolate.

It was a sunless strand that never bore
The footprint of a man
Nor felt the weight

Since time began
Of any human quality or stir,
Save what the dreary winds and waves incur.

II

And in the hush of waters was the sound
Of pebbles, rolling round;
For ever rolling, with a hollow sound:

And the bubbling sea-weeds, as the waters go,
Swish to and fro
Their long, cold tentacles of shiny grey:

There was no day;
Nor ever came a night
Setting the stars alight

To wonder at the moon:
was twilight only, and the frightening croon,
Smitten to whimpers, of the dreary wind.

And waves that journeyed blind......
And then I loosed my ear-oh, it was sweet
To hear a cart go jolting down the street."

James Stephens

Pirates and Privateers - Sir Francis Drake

Pirates and Privateers - Grainne O'Malley

Legends - Pirates and Privateers - Blackbeard

http://bestoflegends.org/pirates/kidd.html

Starfish
It is a fairly common animal and there are lots of types.  They have five or more arms and underneath they have hundreds of tiny feet, that look like tiny tubes, with which they move around.  They feed on shellfish-oysters and mussels.
Fishermen find them a pest and used to tear them in half and throw them back in the sea.  What they did not know was that two new starfish could grow from the two pieces!

"Like as the waves make
towards the pebbled shore
So do our minutes hasten
 to their end;
Each changing place with 
that which goes before,
In sequent toil all
forwards do contend."

Shakespeare

Pirate's 
Hold

"The cove's a shining plate of blue and green,
With darker belts between
The trough and crest of the slow-rising swell,
And the great rocks throw purple shadows down,
Where transient sun- sparks wink and burst and drown
And glimmering pebbles lie to deep to tell,
Hidden or shining as a shadow wavers.
And everywhere the restless sun-steeped air
Trembles and quavers
As though it were
More saturate with light than it could bear."

From The Swimmers

By Edward Shanks

WWW
Tide
/Current predictor.
..USA

The way the sea
moves up and
down the beach
 each day depends on the tides.
 Tides are the
 result of the
pull of the moon's gravity.Tide
levels vary
from day to day depending
on the position
of the moon.
 When the sun ,
moon and earth
 are in alignment
this pull is
stronger and
we have what
are called high
tides.  These
happen once
every two
weeks.  The 
least amount
of movement 
that occurs
are refered
to as the neap
tides.

"Oh when the early morning at the seaside
Took us with hurrying steps from Horsey Mere
To see the whistling Kent-grass on the leeside
And then the tumbled breaker-line appear,
On high, the clouds with mighty adumbration
Sailed over us to seaward fast and clear
And jellyfish is quivering isolation
Lay silted in the dry
sand of the breeze."

From East Anglian Bathe
By John Betjeman

Fish & Marine Life - Web Clip Art - Net Links

"There was an Indian, who had known no change,
Who stayed content along a sunlit beach
Gathered shells."

From The Discovery
By Sir John Squire

Seagulls

A Wav to listen to or download

The cares of a caretaker

A nice old lady by the sea
Was as neat as she was plain,
and every time the tide came in
She swept it back again.

And when the sea untidy grew
And waves began to beat,
she took her little garden rake
And raked it smooth and neat.

She ran a carpet-sweeper up
And down the pebbly sand.
She said,"This is the only way
To keep it clean-good land."

And when the gulls came strolling by,
She drove them shrilly back,
Remarking that it spoiled the beach,
"The way them birds do track."

She fed the catfish clotted cream
And taught it how to purr-
and were a catfish so endowed
She would have stroked its fur.

She stopped the little sea urchins
that travelled by in pairs,
And washed their dirty faces clean
And combed their little hairs.

She spread white napkins on the surf
With which she fumed and fussed,
"when it ain't covered up,"she said
"It gits all over dust."

She didn't like  to see the ships
With all the waves act free,
And so she got a painted sign
Which read;"Keep off the sea."

But dust and splutter as she might,
Her work was sadly vain;
However oft she swept the beach,
The tides came in again.

And she was sometimes wan and worn
When she retired to bed-
"A Woman's work ain't never done."
That nice old lady said.

Wallace Irwin

"And the wavelets fall on the old sea wall
And beat on the cold grey stones,
Singing the song they have sung so long
In their musical monotones."

From the Fisherman's wife

By Percy French

"-then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone , and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink."

From Terror of Death by John Keats

Welcome to the Mary Rose

Titanic Historical Society, Inc.

The Grave of the Titanic

Encyclopedia Titanica: Titanic Passenger and Crew Research

Wave Themes Home Page

My Fave Wavs

Gulls are probably the most familiar of all sea birds, for they are the most common and conspicuous around harbours and beaches. Though often spoken of as "sea "gulls they are seldom found far out at sea. Gulls that follow ocean-bound ships hoping to salvage some titbit thrown overboard usually turn back before the vessel leaves soundings.

"The sun was shining
on the sea,
Shining with all
his might:
He did his very best
to make
The billows smooth 
and bright-
And this was odd
 because it was 
The middle of the
night."

From Through the

looking Glass
By Lewis Carroll

"Like as waves make towards the  pebbled shore,
So do our minutes hasten to their end."

Shakespeare

"Little drops of water,little grains of sand,
Make the mighty oceans,
 and the pleasant land,
So the little minutes, 
humble though they be,
Make the mighty ages of eternity."

From Little Things by Julia Carney

1823-1908

SoundAmerica

All the Love in the World....... My Romantic MIDIS  Page

MIDI Search Engine: Let MIDI Explorer find your files

I Love Wavs

MusicMoz

Midi city

MIDI Song List for Melody Lane MIDI Music Songbook

Treasure Island

a teachers page for projects etc.Very interesting.

"I never saw 
a moor,
 I never saw
 the sea;
Yet I know how
 the heather looks,
And what a wave
must be."

From Time and Eternity by Emily
 Dickinson

1830-1886

House Signs by Trudy

House numbers and names hand painted in any subject, can make your house sign special and individual to you. I can paint or design a house plaque from a supplied photo, rough drawing or from scratch, following your brief.

"Where the waves of
 moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands
with light,
Far off but furthest
Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,
Mingling hands and 
mingling glances
Till the moon has taken
 flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy
bubbles,
While the world is full
of troubles
And is anxious in
its sleep."

From The stolen child

By W.B. Yeats
1865-1939

Listen to 70's & 80's MIDI

Atlanta Wav Warehouse

Wav Central