BARNACLE NEITHER A DUCK-EGG NOR A GOSLING. 399 



Thus, then, an animal originally natatory and loco- 

 motive, and provided with a distinct organ of sight, 

 becomes permanently and immoveably fixed, and its 

 optic apparatus obliterated; and the Barnacle, al- 

 though neither a duck- egg nor a young gosling, is thus 

 proved to undergo a metamorphosis, not so miraculous 

 certainly, but almost as wonderful, as that ascribed to 

 it by our forefathers ! 



