54 MOLLUSCA. 
formed, curious arts of self-preservation. It is not 
contented with hiding 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 shows 
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 this cordage it spins; but it spims 
it as one of the secrets of the deep. Somehow 
or other, though it has no hand, 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 habi- 
tation is rough, and therefore better fitted to elude 
or to ward off enemies. But though rough exter- 
nally, within all is smooth and lubricous, for the 
fine yarn is woven into a lining of tapestry, and 
the interstices are filled up with a fine slime, so that 
it is smooth as plaster-work. 
“When the Lima is taken out of its nest, and 
put into a jar of sea-water, it 1s one of the most 
beautiful marine animals you can look upon. The 
shell is beautiful; the body of the animal within 
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 impulse thus 
given is spent, it repeats the operation, and thus 
