LIMA. i03 



perities, so that there is nothing to injure the delicate ap- 

 pendages of the enclosed animal. Tapestry, as a covering 

 for walls, was once the proud and costly ornament of regal 

 apartments ; but ancient though the art was, I shall answer 

 for it, that our little marine artisan took no hint from the 

 Gobelins, nor from the workmen of Arras, nor from those of 

 Athens, nor even from the earliest tapissiers of the East. 

 I doubt not, that from the time Noah^s Ark rested on the 

 mountain of Ararat, the forefathers of these beautiful little 

 Limas have been constructing their coral cottages, and lining 

 them with well-wrought tapestry, in the peaceful Bay of 

 Lam lash. 



" When the Lima is taken out of its nest, and put into a 

 jar of sea-water, it is one of the most beautiful marine animals 

 you can look upon. The shell is beautiful, the body of the 

 animal witliin the shell is beautiful, and the orange fringe- 

 work outside of the shell is highly ornamental. Instead of 

 being sluggish, it swims about with great vigour. Its mode 

 of swimming is the same as that of the scallop. It opens 

 its valves, and suddenly shutting them expels the water, so 

 that it is impelled onwards or upwards; and when the im- 

 pulse thus given is spent, it repeats the operation, and thus 

 moves on by a succession of jumps. When moving through 



