16 ' EAISED,' WHERE IT LIVES. 



curved bristles, like bundles of minute fishhooks, 

 being quietly permitted to creep under the shell, 

 and force its way by crawling round and round the 

 foot, by a system of hook-and-drag. In no other 

 way, however, could it edge in, without worrying 

 and enraging the fissurella beyond all power of 

 endurance ordinary pressure being only needed 

 to squeeze the intruder flat as a pancake. By 

 gently tickling it with a bit of seaweed under 

 the shell, one would say that patience was a 

 virtue but little cultivated by the fissurella ; the 

 slightest touch, and down goes the shell with a 

 force that cuts the weed in two like scissors. 

 What chance would a soft-bodied worm stand? 

 Not the slightest. The parasite, like Topsy, was 

 ' raised ' where it lives. 



What part a worm, doomed, as far as we know, 

 to pass its whole life captive in the shell of a 

 mollusc, plays on Nature's wide stage, is a problem 

 beyond human ken. We know nothing was created 

 in vain that even the tiny diatom has its use; 

 and this insignificant annelide serves a purpose 

 and fulfils a destiny, in the endless maze of life, as 

 important as the lordly lion, or even man himself. 



It may not be generally known that the Den- 

 talium, or Money-shell, is used as an article of cur- 

 rency by the native tribes of North-west America. 



