BARNACLES. ] 9 1 



CHAPTER XII. 



BARNACLES. 



You cannot have wandered among the rocks on our 

 southern or western coasts, when the tide is out, without 

 having observed that their whole surface, up to a certain 

 level (often very precisely defined), is roughened with an 

 innumerable multitude of little brownish cones. If you 

 have ever thought it worth while to examine them with 

 more care, you have seen that, crowded as they are, so 

 thickly that frequently they crush each other out of their 

 proper form and proportions, they are all constructed on 

 the same model. Each cone is seen to be a little castle, 

 built up of stony plates that lean towards each other, but 

 which leave an orifice at the top. Within this opening, 

 provided the castle be tenanted by a living inhabitant, you 

 see two or three other pieces joined together in a peculiar 

 manner, which are capable of separating, but which, when 

 brought together, effectually close up all ingress. 



Perhaps you have never pushed your investigations 

 farther than this, having a courteous respect for the feel- 

 ings of the inmate, which has prevented your intruding 

 on a privacy so secluded. But I have been less con- 

 siderate ; many a time have I applied the steel chisel 

 and hammer to the solid rock, and, having cut off some 

 projecting piece or angle, have transferred it, all covered 

 with its stony cones, to the interior of a glass tank of 

 sea-water, for more intimate acquaintance with the little 

 builders, at my leisure. 



