THE HORSESHOE CRAB 



reason this singular animal, for such it is, is 

 placed high up on the tree of invertebrate life 

 is because in the larval stage it has the be- 

 ginnings, so to speak, of a backbone — the 

 notochord. Having advanced thus far it 

 seems to despair, and degenerates in the adult 

 stage into the soft, backboneless creature with 

 vegetable tendencies we have just seen. 



I am tempted to conclude this very inade- 

 quate, but I hope suggestive, survey of the 

 lowly life of the seashore by an account of 

 something which does not belong to this group 

 of marine invertebrates,— something that in 

 very truth is neither fish, flesh nor fowl, nor 

 good red herring, and which, although I have 

 looked for it these many years, I have never 

 found. But I do not despair, and some day 

 I hope to justify my beach- wanderings in the 

 eyes of my more practical friends, by finding 

 a fortune in the shape of a piece of amhergi^is. 

 However, I do not let the subject weigh heav- 

 ily on my mind, and even if I fail in my quest 

 my beach-wanderings have paid me well in 

 ways not dreamed of by those same commer- 

 cial-minded ones. Ambergris, or gra}^ amber, 

 as its name would imply, is a gray, greasy 

 substance which is formed as the result of 



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