SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



commonest species is the finger sponge, which 

 is orange-red in color when the animal is alive, 

 but which later bleaches to gray or white. 

 Its powerful sulphurous odor when brilliantly 

 colored is apt to discourage the attempts of 

 amateurs to preserve it. Another common 

 species is appropriately called the bread 

 sponge, for it looks for all the world like a 

 piece of soggy bread. It is generally about 

 the size of a small muffin, but I once found 

 one as large as a ten-cent loaf. 



A whole book could be written on the group 

 of mollusks, or indeed on any of the groups 

 of marine animals, but the true shell-fish are 

 more abundantly represented in number of 

 species than any other group. A few of these 

 only can be considered. Like the horseshoe 

 crab, the great sea-snail, scientifically known 

 as Polynices,— the son of Oedipus the t^^rant, 

 —pushes the sand along in a little mound as 

 it advances below the surface. AVlien it is 

 moving on the surface, one is astonished at 

 the large size of the animal, with its immense 

 foot, as the portion on which it creeps is 

 called, and w^onders how it can possibly retire 

 into its shell. If one picks it up, it at once 

 pours out water as from a watering pot, rap- 



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