102 POPULAR BPvITISH CONCHOLOGY. 



itself among the loose coral, for the first rude wave might 

 lay it naked and bare. It becomes a marine mason, and 

 builds a house or nest. It chooses to dwell in a coral 

 grotto ; but, in constructing this grotto, it sho\Ys that it is not 

 only a mason, but a rope-spinner, and a tapestry weaver, and 

 a plasterer. Were it merely a mason, it would be no easy 

 matter to cause the polymorphous coral to cohere. Cordage, 

 then, is necessary to bind together the angular fragments of 

 the coral, and the cordage it spins ; but it spins it as one of 

 the secrets of the deep. Somehow or another, though it 

 has no hands, it contrives to intertwine this yarn, which it 

 has formed among the numerous bits of coral, so as firmly 

 to bind a handful of it together. Externally this habitation 

 is rough, and therefore better fitted to elude or to ward off 

 enemies ; but though rough externally, within all is smooth 

 and lubricous, for the fine yarn is woven into a lining of ta- 

 pestry, and the interstices are filled up with fine slime, so 

 that it is as smooth as plaster-work, not unlike the patent 

 Intonaco of my excellent, ingenious friend, Mrs. Marshall. 

 Not being intended, however, like her valuable composition, 

 to keep out damp or bid defiance to fire, while the inter- 

 twining cordage keeps the coral walls together, the fine ta- 

 pestry, mixed with smooth and moist plaster, hides all as- 



