X Marks the Spot Old Jack's Boat

Hello, there. How are you today?

Salty and I have a tale or two to tell you about this beach,

and the rockpools,

and all the magical things that happen here.

# Come with me

# We're off to the sea to where I used to play

# Looking back when I was a boy

# And the fun we had each day

# Over the cobbles and through the streets, playing in the sun

# Friends to meet with games and treats

# Adventures just begun

# Stories from a magical world washed in by the sea

# Meet the rockpool creatures there

# It's amazing what you see

# Looking back, when I was a boy

# Shrimps and starfish, crabs and snails

# In twinkly Rockpool Tales

# Those lovely Rockpool Tales. #

Ernie looks busy on the beach today.

I think he's... He's looking for fossils!

Yeah, I love fossils, I do.

Yeah, got one here, somewhere. Where is it? Oh, there you are.

What about that, Salty?

That's a fossil. Yes, it is.

Can you...can you see the pattern in the stone? Can you?

That's the shape of a creature that lived here on Earth

millions of years ago, and I found it on the beach in Staithes.

I'll tell you the story, if you like.

Yeah, it all happened when I was a boy,

in a twinkly time, long, long ago.

I used to run down to the beach as often as I could,

meeting up with my best friends, Little Ernie and Little Sailor Sue.

-Want to borrow my magnifying glass?

-Yes, please.

Little Sailor Sue's mother had lent her a magnifying glass

so that we could play fossil hunters on the beach.

SALTY BARKS

Salty wants you to know that if you want to look for fossils too,

you've got to be safe, right?

Don't go near any cliffs where rocks might fall, right.

Well, we started our search on the beach,

looking carefully at every stone.

This one's small and orange.

I'm just clearing this one, and it's full of holes.

And we had brushes, too, for brushing the dirt away,

and crayons, and paper, to make rubbings.

When we looked at the rocks,

we found some very interesting-looking patterns.

-I don't think there's any fossils here.

-No.

But none that we thought were fossils.

So, we wandered over to our favourite rockpool.

And as we gazed deep down into the glittery green water,

a magical world appeared before our eyes.

On this particular day,

Sidney the Snail was making his way across the rockpool floor,

very slowly.

"It's not easy carrying your whole home on your back," he grumbled,

and he let out a long sigh.

Just then, he spied something unusual in the wet sand.

It was an X-shape.

Just as Sidney was wondering what it was, Sally the Starfish appeared.

"Look at this, Sally! What does it mean?"

"That's a letter X," she said.

"If you see one of those on the ground,

"it usually means there's buried treasure underneath it."

"Ooh," said Sidney. "Oh, whoopee, let's dig it up!"

"Leave it to me," said Sally.

Well, she rushed off and she got the longest,

scoopiest shell in her shell collection, and she started to dig,

and Sally dug, and she dug, and she scooped out the sand.

"Phew, very hard work," and she huffed and she puffed,

and she started to go quite red in the face.

"Oh, it's hard work!"

And then suddenly... Clunk!

"Is it treasure?" asked Sidney.

"I hope so," said Sally,

wiggling her shell to try to get it underneath.

But just then... Oh, disaster!

Sally's longest, scoopiest shell had somehow got utterly stuck

and it didn't matter how hard she tried to wriggle it and jiggle it,

it would not come free.

"It will not budge, Sidney.

"What...what shall I do?"

"I think it's best to get help to pull it out," said Sidney.

Suddenly, Belinda the Blenny appeared.

"Ah, Belinda, help," cried Sally.

"I was digging for treasure but now my shell is stuck

"and I can't pull it out."

"Treasure?" said Belinda, imagining shimmering silver.

"Of course I'll help. I'm a very strong fish."

Belinda held on to one of Sally's arms

and they both pulled together.

"Heave!

"Heave!"

But they couldn't pull the shell out.

It was utterly stuck.

Sheena the Shrimp swam up.

"Can you help us pull out my shell, please, Sheena?

"We might find treasure," called Sally.

"Oh, yes, how exciting," said Sheena,

imagining glittering gold.

So she grabbed hold of Belinda's tail.

"Heave!"

But that shell would not move.

It really was utterly stuck.

When Bertrum the Butterfish found out what was going on,

he helped out too, holding on to Sheena's tail with both fins.

"Heave!"

But the shell still wouldn't move.

"I never thought this would be so difficult," said Sally.

Then Buster the Crab came sidling along.

"Snappers!" he said when he heard about the treasure.

"Let's get pulling."

But every time Buster tried to clamp onto Bertrum's tail,

Bertrum said, "Ow!

"Buster, stop it, you're nipping me with your claws."

"Sorry, can't help it," Buster snapped.

"I am a crab, and claws are what crabs have."

Sally and Buster swapped places so that Buster was at the front

and he couldn't accidentally pinch anyone.

"One, two, three."

"Heave!"

They all heaved together.

And, suddenly....

"Whoa! Watch it.

"Ouch!"

..the shell came loose,

and all the creatures toppled,

falling backwards in a big pile.

All the creatures except Sidney.

At the same time, a rather large stone

shot up out of the hole and high into the air.

BOOF!

The stone came down just in front of Sidney's nose,

and he peered at it.

"Is this our treasure?" he said.

Everyone gathered around the stone.

"It isn't silver," said Belinda.

"Or gold," said Sheena.

"But it's the best treasure of all," said Buster,

gently brushing the sand with one of his claws.

"Look at that pattern.

"It's a fossil.

"Fossils aren't ordinary stones," explained Buster.

"They are very precious because you can see

"the remains of creatures in them,

"creatures that have lived here

"in the sea a long, long, long,

"long, long, long time ago."

All the creatures gasped.

"Look, Sidney," said Sally, examining the pattern on the rock.

"This creature had a shell

"a bit like yours."

"Oh.

"A creature a bit like me lived in the sea

"a long, long, long,

"long, long, long, long, long, long, long, long time ago,

"and it had a swirly shell a bit like mine," said Sidney.

And Sidney felt very proud of his shell.

And he started to hum -

a hum-hum hummity-hum-hum sort of tune.

"I wonder if the fossil creature liked to sing, too,"

Sidney mused.

And he hummed happily for the rest of the day.

We looked up from the rockpool

and headed down to the beach to continue our fossil hunt.

I was so busy looking on the ground

that I bumped into Ernie, and we both went flying.

OLD JACK LAUGHS

That's when I saw it,

right under my nose.

What's this?

We'd found our first-ever fossil.

We've found a fossil!

We all took turns to hold it.

It felt cool and magical,

as if you were holding time itself.

Let's be dinosaurs.

THEY ROAR

And then we had great fun imagining

we were weird and wonderful creatures

all those millions of years ago,

when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.

Well, we played for the rest of the day until the tide came in

and covered the rockpool,

like a great, seaweedy blanket.

And that is the tale

of the wonderful and fascinating fossil.

Very precious treasure, indeed. Yes.

WOOF!

It's not as precious as you, though, Salty.

Come on, let's go and see if Ernie's found any today, shall we?

You fancy that?

Oh, come back soon for some more Rockpool Tales, won't you?

Goodbye.

Come on, girl. Are you coming?

HE LAUGHS