CYPRiEA. 203 



of a bright orange colour^, duskily banded^ or yellow, with 

 orange edge, or mottled green and brown, or all pale pink. In 

 front come three horns which, on examination, we find are 

 not all alike; for the centre one is a tube, the siphonal 

 canal protruding to some length : the other two are the 

 slender tentacles, with sharp little black eyes at their bases. 

 Then you just see the front edge of the flat foot, which is 

 straight, with sharp corners ; swelling above this is an oval 

 convex body, with a slit down the middle, through which 

 something hard and flesh-coloured appears, with two rows of 

 knobs. This is the shell, wrapped up in the lobes of the 

 gaily-coloured mantle. Behind all this is the continuation 

 of the flat foot, which ends like the top of a gothic arch. 

 Anxious to become a little more intimate with your new 

 acquaintance, you lean over the boat, dip your hand into the 

 water, and seize the object. Drawing it up, you have in 

 your hand apparently nothing but a flesh-coloured shell, in 

 form like a coffee-berry, with ribs across the back, and an 

 opening down the whole length of the under side. But 

 where are the horns and the siphons, and the mantle and the 

 long flat foot ? All gathered in a moment within that nar- 

 row toothed hole. And, as in the case of Goldsmith^'s 

 schoolmaster, where 



