228 INTRODUCTION TO CONCHOLOGY. 



weeds, diversified with tufts of corallines, wliile above them 

 bright emerald waters flash and sparkle, and gently ripple 

 upon the shore ; at another they attach themselves to bold 

 masses of huge weather-beaten and wave-washed rocks, 

 wdiich appear as if covered with beautiful grey moss or 

 lichens, but are really encrusted with innumerableLim pets, 

 which cling to them amid the fury of contending billows. 



In thus assigning the Limpet to different localities, it 

 seems as if the Creator of the Universe designed not only 

 to embellish their herbless haunts, but that Hfe should be 

 manifested w^here utter sterility would otherwise prevail. 

 Each of those small cone-shaped dwellings is, therefore, 

 the home of some curiously-constructed being, endowed 

 with faculties for enjoyment, and admirably adapted to its 

 solitary location. 



Such w^ere the reflections that arose within us, during a 

 solitary walk on the beach at Weymouth. The sun had 

 just risen, and his broad beams shed a dazzling radiance 

 on the vast expanse of w^aters, 



" Whose interveDing billows' snowy foam, 

 Rising successively, seemed steps of light. 

 Such as oh Bethel's plain the angels clomb, 

 When to the slumbering patriarch's ravished sight 

 Heaven's glories were revealed in visions of the night." 



