NONSUCH 



factory is along the very rim of the head, so when 

 an accident occurs to the shell farther back, while 

 the marble patch is laid on at once, it is always 

 white, uncolored. 



The shellfish which have ensconced themselves in 

 their armor just where the sea pounds heaviest have 

 a double defense which seems well-nigh impreg- 

 nable. Yet one of the most dramatic things is the 

 way other organisms have learned to encompass 

 the smashing power of their watery moats, and to 

 pierce their marble forts. It is a fight against strong 

 odds and has several fascinating twists. Two fami- 

 lies of the snails of Nonsuch which live their lives 

 in tidepools or on the cliffs amid swirling currents 

 or within crash of the breakers, are the limpets and 

 the chitons. 



If we do not mind returning for a few minutes 

 to this damp, agitated ancestral home of ours ; and 

 squat down among the water-worn gorges and 

 canyons, we will see here and there the little wig- 

 wam-hke dwellings of the limpets. The low, spread- 

 ing, well-guyed tents of the Arabs are the only 

 structures which will stand the terrific blasts of the 

 desert storms — and in this snail world of crash- 

 ing, pounding elements, block houses, turrets and 

 towers would soon be torn to fragments. But even 

 in this narrow, dynamic zone Nature has exquisitely 

 exact adaptations. Low down, where for ten out of 

 the twelve hours of tidal change there is no quiet 

 or rest, the limpets are few in number, but these 

 daring pioneers are encased in low, very stout shell- 



214 



