GEOGRAPHY OF SKELLS. 35 



of Ovid, still exists beside the ruins of the ancient Phoenician 

 city of Tyros ; but the instances already cited will suffice 

 to show that different kinds of mollusks, equally with 

 animals and plants, have their assigned localities, and that 

 some specimens of great beauty appear as if restricted to 

 certain portions of the globe. 



Such, then, are a few locaUties of the shell tribe ; of those 

 first-fruits of the ocean which make the heart beat with 

 delight in discovering and possessing them. How vividly 

 that bright moment recurs to my remembrance, when the 

 deep proud sea first rose upon my sight; — when I first 

 heard the loud cry of the returning sea-gull, and saw the 

 dancing waves bound upwards, as if in defiance of the rocks 

 that repelled them. And how pleasingly, too, arises the 

 thought of those glad hours when the sportive billows threw 

 up their beautiful Sea-weeds and Shells, with long, trailing 

 Fuci, and light grey Corallines ; — when ocean seemed to say, 

 Stranger, you have, perhaps, travelled far, and seen much 

 of groves and gardens, of inland valleys and green hills ; but 

 the earth, from which you spring, and on whose bosom 

 myriads have lain down to rest, brings neither to the heart 

 nor to the imagination that vivid debght which my ever- 

 varying productions yield. There is somewhat of sadness 



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