LIMPETS. 329 



The scene was indescribably pleasing. The earthy the 

 air^ the water, teemed with delighted existence. MjTiads 

 of " insect youth were on the wing/^ ^^jii^g their pinions 

 in the air, and sporting in endless mazes with inconceivable 

 rapidity. Shoals of little fisii darted through the sparkling 

 waves, or bounded from the shallow margin of the water, 

 as if rejoicing in their newly-discovered faculties ; while on 

 the nearest rocks a few mollusca, in the shape of sea-ane- 

 mones, expanded their imitative petals to the sun. 



In the foreground a group of dark tempest-beaten stones 

 were covered with Limpets [Vatellce), the tapering summit; 

 of which, as the waves occasionally dashed them with their 

 spray, presented a beautiful variety of forms and colours. 

 They stood, like Ossian^s ^4onely dwellers of the rock,^^ 

 solitary in the midst of numbers, and apparently incapable 

 of sharing in the general joy. — But, softly ! has not Provi- 

 dence given to every class of beings its peculiar sources 

 of enjoyment ? and is not the solitary Limpet exempt from 

 dangers which continually surround the finny natives of the 

 deep? Gradually the beams of the sun illumined the 

 tops of the rocks. One of the shells began to open. A 

 kind of leg, or foot, was carefully projected from beneath 

 the shell, which gently erected itself on one edge as if to 



