494 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



CHAPTER LIV. 



GASTEROPOD MOLLUSCA. 



" O, what an endlesse worke have I in hand, 

 To count the Sea's abundant progeny, 

 Whose fruitfull seede farre passeth those in land, 

 And also those which wonne in th' azure sky ! 

 For much more eath to tell the starres on hy, 

 All be they endlesse seeme in estimation, 

 Then to recount the Sea's posterity ; 

 So fertile be the floods in generation, 

 So huge their numbers, and so numberlesse their nation." 



PARADOXICAL as the assertion may appear, it is un- 

 doubtedly consistent with general experience, that 

 the beauties of Creation are by popular prejudice 

 only deemed estimable in proportion to their rarity ; 

 or, in other words, that whatever is common or 

 abundant, is on that very account contemptible and 

 unworthy of notice. With a certain class of persons, 

 the student of natural history, who, to their apprehen- 

 sion, does nothing but 



" sigh for Nature's vermin," 



comes in for rather more than a due share of pity 

 and charitable compassion. Poor fellow ! 



